


A Veil of Black and Gold

by Queen_Slytherin07



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Death, F/M, Horror, Love, Romance, Tragedy, Walkers (Walking Dead)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 03:32:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 50,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Slytherin07/pseuds/Queen_Slytherin07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the end of the world. People are dying and becoming something inhuman, something monstrous. For a young woman, known as Nicole Montez, this world is something she can't face on her own. When she meets a certain survivor, a cold, withdrawn redneck, she realizes that she may not have to be alone for long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Knowing Where I Am, When I Open My Eyes...

Nicole Montez carefully walked through the once happy streets of her small hometown of Raventon Texas. She saw nothing but cars, all stopped in the street facing some random direction. She kept her axe at the ready, not liking the eerie feeling this street was giving her. She continued the path she was on, heading in the direction of the outskirts of town. She needed to get to Dallas. The CDC was there and that meant he would be there. ‘That is the first place he would go.’ She thought as she hopped onto the sidewalk.

She continued walking, and then stopped next to a not so empty car to catch her breath. She sat against the tire, bringing her hand up to the bandage that was wrapped up around her body. She winced touching the still painful wound. Pulling a can of soda out of her bag, she sighed and tried to keep her thoughts from going ill, all this death and sickness, how could he have possibly escaped? How could he have made it?

All of a sudden, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She lay on the ground next to the abandoned car, trying hard to ignore the rotting corpse that was inside; the strong odor that assaulted her was not exactly what you would call helpful. She saw feet go by slowly in front of her on the other side of the car.

It was a walker, Nicole could tell. Its ankle was broken; the sight of the white bone sticking out of the still bleeding and punctured skin caused Nicole to give a small smile. It was sad that something that gave people a sense of loss and grief, brought a smile to Nicole’s face. She loved seeing fucked up shit. Whether it was people dying in hideous explosions, or just someone breaking a limb, Nicole would want to watch, to get the euphoric feeling she got when seeing real life gore happen right in front of her. She would never tell a living soul, but she absolutely loved the apocalypse.

The five minutes it took for the walker to walk by felt like an eternity to Nicole. Once it finally did, she stood up and walked behind it. The sneak attack she was planning was ruined when her foot knocked over her can of soda. Nicole swore under her breath as the dummy turned around and growled, walking toward her with hunger in its eyes and renewed vigor in its steps.

Nicole gasped softly as she saw the face on the dummy. It was her best friend, Marybelle Wesslin. She just lived right across the street from Nicole and had been in her life since the age of three. Now she was walking toward Nicole, with nothing on its dead mind except getting a bite out of her.

“Marybelle? Hey, can you hear me dude?” Marybelle continued forward, her growling getting louder and her hands getting closer. Well, one of her hands, Marybelle had only one arm, huge bite marks on her neck and abdomen and of course a broken ankle. Memories of Marybelle and Nicole’s time together passed through her head. She remembered going to the Avenged Sevenfold concert with Marybelle and Rael, not three or four months ago. They had all three gotten matching tour shirts, the shirt that Marybelle was wearing right now.

She was also wearing Nicole’s black and purple tutu. Marybelle had sworn up and down that she didn’t have that tutu. ‘I knew that bitch was lying’, Nicole thought as she started walking back and swung the axe right at her best friend’s head. The axe pierced the dummy’s head, splitting right in two pieces and Nicole grimaced as the spray of blood splattered her Calvin and Hobbes hoodie.

Her body fell to the ground in a loud thump, and Nicole walked over to the dummy. ‘Heh, now I can finally get my tutu back.’ Nicole thought to herself once again, with a smirk on her face, as she pulled the axe out of what used to be her best friend. She then reached down and pulled the tutu off of Marybelle, and put it in her bag.

She continued her original course, and hopped onto the sidewalk, a gleam of hope in her eyes and a renewed vigor to her steps, knowing that she wasn’t as alone as she thought, as she saw her partner catching up behind her.

Nicole sat happily on her bed and looked up at her T.V. There was going to be a Saw marathon on Stars: all seven movies filled with nothing but amazingly beautiful gore. She sat comfortably and proceeded to roll a blunt. She turned the volume up on the television and started to slowly dissect the skin. After she had it split, she dumped all the tobacco in a little baggie for her dad.

She opened up her grinder and proceeded to load the skin. She started rolling the blunt, just as the first movie started. All of a sudden, her brother Rael busted through her door and scared her, causing Nicole to break the almost completed blunt in half. “Rael, are you serious? That was the only skin I had.” She threw the pieces of the destroyed blunt skin at him, and he laughed, easily batting away the light projectiles.

“Whoa there, girl. You should know by now that I am always prepared.” Rael pulled a beautiful glass bong out from behind his back and offered it to Nicole. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and took the device from him.

“You still owe me a skin, brother.” She said as she sat back on her bed and began to load the bong with the weed that had fallen all over the book in her lap.

“Oh, dear Lord! I hope I can find ninety fucking cents somewhere!” He replied sarcastically as he threw himself onto Nicole’s bed. She rolled her eyes and smiled as she saw the bowl was filled to her liking. She took a lighter from Rael, and set fire to the weed in the bowl. She inhaled, watching as the smoke filled every square inch of space in the bong.

Then she removed the bowl from the bong, and inhaled all the smoke, returning it to its natural state. After handing it to him, she asked her brother with a look of absolute seriousness, “What are you doing in my room? You are interrupting my Saw marathon, Number Two.” Rael looked at his little sister and knew she meant business. Nicole’s older brother was 21 year old, Rael Romero Montez II, thus earning the nickname from her, Number 2.

“We’re going to a party. I came in here to tell you to get ready because we will be leaving in a few moments.” He hit the bong as her jaw dropped in shock, looking at his content face.

“I’m not going anywhere. I have been waiting for this Saw marathon for months, so I am staying right here.” She stomped her foot just as her dad, Rael Romero Montez Jr. walked into the room.

“Dad, tell Rael that I’m not going to his stupid party. I have a very important date with my T.V. and he’s trying to ruin it!” Rael handed the bong to his dad, who hit it before answering Nicole.

“He really wants you to go to that party. Besides, I have alot of work to do and I don’t want you home alone.” Nicole and Rael’s dad was a very important lawyer. There would be nights when he would stay in his office to get all his extra work done. Lately, he’s been working on a very bad domestic dispute case and it wasn’t the first night that he had been away this week.

“Oh, please! I’m 20 years old! I am old enough and more than capable of staying home by myself.” She raised her eyebrows at her dad and threw an ugly look to her brother as she took the bong away from him and hit it as hard as she could.

“It’s because he doesn’t want Ray over here.” Rael said as it was his turn to throw Nicole an ugly look of his own. Ray was Nicole’s 25 year old crack head boyfriend. He was wild, reckless, and spontaneous but he loved Nicole more than life itself. He was a crack head but he was a man of strong morals and ideals.

He also did anything and everything he could to make Nicole happy. She wanted pot; he had a pound delivered to her in an hour. She wanted a new game, it was hers. Nicole didn’t love the material wealth that Ray possessed; she fell in love with him before all that. He used to be her drug dealer.

Her father and brother both disliked him with a passion but for some reason, Nicole found crack heads very attractive. She gave a small smile, and her dad caught it, confirming that she was indeed planning to have Ray come over.

“He’s right, Nicole. I don’t want that scumbag here in my house.” Nicole gave a sigh, as she exhaled the smoke in her lungs. If only they knew the real him, they wouldn’t mind having him come over. Ray had begged Nicole to not tell her brother and father about his nice side.

“At least, not yet, baby. I want to wait for the right moment.” He had told her once they first started dating. What he was waiting for, Nicole had no clue.

“You’re going to that party with your brother. Now, both of you get up and give me a hug.” Nicole and Rael both stood up and gave their father a hug. Nicole knew her father meant well. She couldn’t be mad at him and she couldn’t hate him no matter how hard she tried. “Go out, Nicole and have fun with your brother, alright?”

“Yes, Dad.” And that was the end of that discussion. Nicole didn’t watch her Saw marathon; she didn’t even make it to the end of the first movie. Her dad took off to work and Rael left to call his friends. Nicole sighed and shut her door. She told her brother the only way she would go to this stupid party quietly was if he went out and bought her a skin.

“What flavor do you want?” He asked as he checked himself in her full body mirror before turning to her.

“Strawberry Swisher and it has to be a Swisher!”

“Alright I’ll be back, you better be ready, Nicole!”

“Don’t forget to knock before entering!” She yelled as he slammed her door. She turned to her radio and pushed play on her iPod. Falling in Reverse began blaring out of the speakers and she sang along to beautiful Ronnie as she quickly undressed. “So why do good girls like bad guys? I’ve had this question for a really long time. I’m a bad boy and it’s plain to see, so why do good girls fall in love with me?”

She put on a white shirt with a middle finger and weed plant design, a pair of bright yellow skinnies and a pair of white lacy chunky heels. Once she was dressed, she walked over to her door and locked it. She knew Rael wasn’t going to knock, that kid had no sense of privacy. As Falling in Reverse changed into The White Stripes, Nicole kept singing along and looked down at her phone. The picture of her and Ray leapt out at her and she smiled. She unlocked her phone and found his name in her contact list. It didn’t even finish ringing the first time when he answered it.

“Nicole?”

“Hey baby, what are you doing?” She laid out on her bed and sighed, lighting a cigarette.

“Nothing, just smoking a bowl thinking about you.” She blushed at this and smiled, her love for Ray stronger than anything else. “I know you’re blushing, Nicole, and I bet you look so cute.”

“How do you know I’m blushing Ramon?” She laughed as she sat back up in her bed.

“You always blush when I say something sweet about you. I’ve been with you for five years, honey bun, I would know these things.” She smiled and sighed.

“Well, I have to go to this stupid party with stupid Number 2. I wish you would let my family know the real you, then I wouldn’t have to go to these stupid parties.” Nicole heard the spark of a lighter and the inhale of Ray’s breath before he answered.

“I want things to be perfect before I do, babe. Trust me, it won’t be long now.”

“I’ll call you when I get home baby, let you know I’m going over.”

“Alright, doll. I love you.”

“I love you too, bye.” She hung up the phone at the exact moment Rael came banging on her door. She opened and saw Rael, decked out in a black Koopa shirt, with faded jeans. He had his Batman hat with an LMFAO bracelet, Wolverine belt, and Legend of Zelda necklace. He was also sporting his awesome Charizard Nikes.

“Are you ready?” He asked and Nicole nodded, grabbing her Pikachu bag and dropping her wallet, cell phone, a bag of pot, her cigarettes and lighter and house keys. “Here” He threw her his car keys and she looked at him with confusion. “I have to take a shit, go start the car.”

“Gross, Rael I didn’t need to know that.” She squished up her face as she exited the house and walked to Rael’s precious black late 60’s model Camaro. She hopped into the car and started it, plugging in her iPod and blasting ‘Ich Will’ by Rammstein.

She banged her head and drummed the dash board, the music so loud it caused the apartment buildings windows next door, which had been empty for months, to rattle violently. Finally, Rael came out of the dark and empty house already drinking a forty. She sighed as he got in the car and turned the radio down.

“Are you ready to fucking party?!” He yelled right in her face.

“No!” She yelled right back.

Nicole impatiently sighed and looked toward her brother with a lazy look. The gentle breeze ran her dark black hair gently across her brother’s neck. He looked down at her with a look of irritation. She looked up at him, through platinum blonde bangs, and he glared at her viciously. “Rael, this party is boring. Let’s go back to the house.” Rael just chugged the rest of his Budweiser Tallboy and let out a belch.

“Nicole, I came to this party for some action. I heard from a very reliable source that the entire police force is helping the next county over end a high speed chase. They have been trying to stop that crazy fucker for hours! Officer Rick Grimes is nowhere to be seen today.” He walked passed Nicole, bumping her shoulder roughly. She sighed and followed him, having no other choice. He walked to the makeshift shooting range that was set up by a couple of Rael’s friends just earlier that day.

Rael and his friend Jonas began placing bets on who was a better marksman. Nicole was surprised they could hear each other; she could barely hear herself think over the gunshots and shouts. Nicole tossed her brother a hateful look when he threw his jacket on her, getting ready to shoot a few rounds of a very big handgun. “Hey Nicole, go get me another Tallboy from the car. The keys are in the jacket.”

Nicole then smiled mischievously and started searching threw her brothers jacket pockets. She hugged herself mentally as she gripped onto his car keys, having no intention on bringing him back his alcohol. ‘Let him find his own way home. He usually does anyways.’ She put his hoodie on and walked away from the commotion. She walked through a huge crowd of drunken idiots and assholes’, smiling when she saw the car was in close proximity. She was just about to take off running.

-BANG-

Nicole stopped; dead in her tracks, looking down at the blood staining her hands and her favorite shirt and fell to the ground. Everyone ducked at the sound of the gunshot. Rael smacked his friend Jonas, for being stupid and looked over his shoulder, toward the direction the bullet went, and his grin faded.

There was a group of people looking down at the ground. “Jonas, you dumbass! I think you shot someone.” His friends T.J. and Mike began yelling his name and his heart dropped. ‘Where is Nicole?’ He thought. He looked toward his car and saw she wasn’t there.

‘Oh fuck! Please no, please no!’ He took off running faster that he has ever ran before in his life. He finally got to the crowd and pushed his way through. His worse fears were realized when he got to the center. His baby sister was on the ground, shot and bleeding bad. “No, no, no, no, no, no! Nicole, hey baby. It’s ok, I’m here ok.” He took the jacket off of her and used it to put pressure on her wound.

“Rael…” Nicole could barely get the word out. Her eyesight was going dark and the pain was unbearable.

“I’m here, baby girl, don’t worry. You!” He stood up as his friend Mike continued applying pressure to the still bleeding gunshot and lunged at Jonas. “You fucking asshole! You shot my little sister!” He kept punching Jonas over and over again until T.J. pulled him off.

“Dude, stop! You have to get Nicole to the hospital. My mom’s working and I already texted her. She knows we’re coming now let’s go!” Mike scooped Nicole up in his arms and started booking it to Rael’s car. Rael took off after him and T.J. grabbed Jonas roughly by his shirt. “You’re ass is coming with us! If she dies, it’ll be on your hands!”

The next thing Nicole remembers was warped and blurred. It was like she was in a dream state and everything was lagged.

“Hey Nicole.” Rael walked into the hospital room with a bouquet of flowers. “Dad sends his love and Mike, T.J., Brian; everybody helped buy you these nice purple roses. I told them they had to be purple.” He smiled and then sat in a chair next to the bed, his smile fading rapidly. “I’m sorry Nicole. I never should’ve dragged you to that stupid party. It’s the same thing over and over again. Just don’t forget that we’re here for you.”

“I can’t believe they got flowers. They probably stole them; my guess is from old lady’s Winfred’s house.” She laughed coarsely and looked around. Rael was nowhere to be seen. “Hey Rael? Where are you, in the bathroom?” There was no reply.

She looked over to her flowers and saw them, not fresh and beautiful but old, dry and dead. She winced as she touched the bandage on her side and checked the time on the clock. It had stopped at four fifteen; it gave Nicole an uneasy feeling as she removed her IVs. She tried to get off the bed but fell hard onto the cold ground below. “Oh shit! Hey, nurse please help!” She removed the last painful IV and tried to upright herself. “Nurse! I need fucking help!”

No one came to help Nicole and she laid out on the ground for five minutes, trying to get the feeling back in her legs. She finally stood up and shakily walked to the bathroom. The lights didn’t work but luckily the water did. She drank and drank until she got her strength up a little more. She walked to the door and pushed, tripping on a gurney that was pushed in front of her door.

She jumped as she heard a noise and saw a ragged man who was dressed in the exact same robe she was. He looked at her, and she looked at him. The realization of who the man was nearly knocked her to the floor. “Officer Grimes?”


	2. We're by Ourselves, but Not Alone...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and Rick team up and venture out into their new world. What's going to happen to them and will they find their families?

The realization that there was someone else, anyone else, in this godforsaken hospital, made Rick Grimes and Nicole Montez bond that much quickly. They weren’t alone, maybe they could figure out what was going on here. Why was this hospital dark and empty? Why was the smell of decaying flesh as strong as it was? The dazed cop blinked a couple of times before answering the dazed young woman.

“Who is that? Nicole? Nicole Montez?” It figures the local authorities would know who she was; her older brother’s parties had the tendency to get a little loud, getting the cops called by the nosy neighbors. ‘Rael! Dad! I have to get home, maybe they know what’s going on.’ She thought, lost in her thoughts about her family. “Nicole? Can you hear me?” She looked up at the cop; she had forgotten that he was there.

“Yea, I hear you Officer Grimes.” She stumbled closer to him and saw he had a little smile on his face.

“I think due to the circumstances, it’s alright for you to call me Rick.” She looked up at Rick, surprised that the cop she had once hated for busting up her social fun times, kept a calm and cool demeanor for her sake. ‘He’s a cop, so he’s good at helping people stay calm, even when shit’s hitting the fan.’ She thought.

“Well, Rick, can you explain to me what in the fuck is going on here?” She said in the coolest voice she could muster. He looked around, just as bewildered as she was and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m afraid I’m as in the dark as you are. No pun intended.” He said with a smile, as Nicole looked up at the dead lights. She suddenly thought of this one invention called a telephone, and started walking towards the nearest nurse’s station. Rick’s hand grabbed hold of her arm as she walked by. “Where are you going? It’s best if we stay together.” She shrugged off his grasp and looked him in the eye.

“Then let’s go. We aren’t going to get any answers just standing here. I’m going to look for a phone to call my house.” They both hobbled, surprisingly at the same pace due to their almost matching wounds. Nicole grabbed the phone quickly but slammed it down just as fast. “The phone’s dead.” She sighed as Rick began rummaging through the items on the desk.

He found a small matchbook and tested one of the matches. It struck with fiery spark and he nodded to Nicole, holding on tight to the matchbook. Some flickering lights caught their attention and Rick protectively got in front of Nicole. She looked from around him, eager to see what he thinks he was protecting her from. They made their way slowly to the lights and saw they were coming from a different wing of the hospital.

A lady lay in the middle of the hallway, dead. Nicole saw it looked like something had come and ripped her open, eating away at all the flesh on her body except for her face. Nicole slowly let a small smile come to her lips as the thought of whatever happened to this poor woman went through her mind. She continued to stare when Rick’s voice suddenly brought her back.

“Nicole, get away from there. Let’s find a way out of here.” She reluctantly followed. Rick was unsure of this girl he was stranded with, as she slowly pulled her face from the window, wincing slightly as she brought her hand up to gingerly touch her bandage. She seemed off, like she was in her own reality to make up for the horrible one she seemed to have found herself in. ‘I’ll just have to keep an eye out on her. If she’s anything like her brother, I may just have my hands full.’

He looked back at her, and saw her attention was on something else. She had a confused and terrified look on her face and when he saw what she was staring at, he looked at it the same way. There was a door, locked with a huge chain and padlock with four words spray painted on them: ‘don’t open, dead inside.’ There were noises coming from the other side of the chain. It was like guttural moaning noises with the occasional sound of something getting knocked over.

The guttural became more of a growling as something began to push against the door. Nicole gasped and held tightly onto Rick as she saw fingers-human fingers-reach in between the doors, gripping the chains and padlock. Rick held onto Nicole and led her away from the awful and scary sight. He pulled her through another set of doors to the elevator.

As he rapidly pushed the down button, Nicole kept her hand over her mouth. ‘What in God’s name was going on here? Why were there people locked in a room marked ‘dead inside’, when it was obvious they weren’t dead?’ She thought so hard, she didn’t realize a single tear escape her eye. She looked away from Rick, but he saw it. He pulled her into a big hug, careful not to hurt her or himself anymore than they already have, and she cried.

It just all started sinking in, that something serious was happening and that people have died. ‘I hope they’re ok, please let Dad, Rael and Ray be ok.’ She slowly stopped the flow of tears and cleared her throat.

“Ok, I’m feeling a lot better.” She sniffled and wiped her nose on her gown, looking up at Rick. He just smiled down at her and soothingly wiped a stray tear that had gotten away from her.

“Don’t worry. We will make it out of here and we will find our families. I promise you, Nicole. I’ll look after you.” She sniffled once more and nodded, looking toward the door that leads to the pitch black staircase.

“I believe you Rick.” She walked toward the door and pulled it open, leading the way while Rick lit the matches, unsure if Nicole really was ok at that moment. The matches weren’t working as well as Rick hoped and Nicole had already fallen twice.

It was just too dark and the matches didn’t give off enough light. Things got worse when they saw they were on the last match. “Rick, I don’t want to be in here all in the dark.” She grabbed hold of his arm and he held onto her. When he looked up he saw something that brought a smile to his face.

“Nicole look, we’re at the exit. Ow!” The match had burned down, burning Rick’s fingers a little, but Nicole had seen it before the light died out. It was indeed the exit. She pushed open the big door and they both shielded their eyes from the sudden brightness of outside.

Once they were able to see, the sight was horrendous. All over the ground and in the back of random trucks were bodies wrapped in white sheets. There had to be dozens of them, all lined up and all of them for some odd reason had some kind of head wound. Rick tried to shield Nicole from seeing the disaster, but she just pushed his hand away. There was much more death than she had ever imagined their being.

“Rick, what is going on? Why are all these bodies here?” He just held onto her and led her down the stairs and out the courtyard filled with dead bodies.

“I don’t know Nicole, but don’t worry. We just have to get to our families. Alright, we have to stop by our houses, to see if they are safe. Where do you live?” Nicole may have been behind Rick but her mind was still at the courtyard, the dead bodies holding her interests, keeping her mentally apart from cop trying to help her. “Nicole!” His outburst brought her all the way back and he looked into his eyes. “Why do you do that? Where are you going? What in your head is more important than trying to find your family?” His voice was loud and accusing.

She looked back at him and scoffed, walking away-more like waddling- from him, not wanting to get into a conversation like this with a pig. “Hey, you listen to me.” He grabbed her arms and forced her to make eye contact with him. “You can’t wander like that. We need each other; we need to have each other’s back. I don’t know what’s going on, but I need you to focus, Nicole. I know you have hateful feelings towards me because of your brother and Ray,” ‘That’s also how he recognized me.’ Nicole thought, remembering how Rick had busted Ray a couple years ago for a possession charge. “But we are in this mess together and I have no problem protecting you, I just need to make sure you’re willing to return the favor. If not let me know and we can go our own separate ways.”

She looked up at him in shock; he would leave her here to fend for herself? Nicole then realized that it was not worth it, holding such a meaningless grudge against someone who was willing to help her. She sighed and looked back up at the former cop and nodded.

“I’m sorry, Rick. I have your back just like you have my back. Let’s look for our families; my house is on 22nd, maybe ten blocks down that way.” She pointed to the west, away from the hospital.

“I live in the same direction, right on 35th. We can stop by your place first.” Rick said as he looked down at Nicole, smiling softly at her. She smiled back and they continued hobbling along toward their destination, unsure of what they would find. They only walked two blocks when they both nearly collapsed. Their wounds were proving too much to take on foot, and they started looking for another means of transportation.

“Look Rick, there’s a bike!” Nicole exclaimed as she jogged slowly to the bright red number with pegs on the front tires. “It’s perfect! You can drive and I can ride.” She positioned the bike on its two wheels when suddenly the half body that was lying nearby woke up and turned toward Nicole. “Aaugghh! Rick, what the hell is that?! What is that!?” She fell over the bike and ran to Rick, hiding behind him like a scared rabbit. It reached for them and snarled at them, chomping its jaws and trying its hardest to reach them. Rick carefully walked to the bike and picked it back up.

“Nicole, come on baby, it’s time to go.” She stood in shock for another few moments before hopping on the front pegs and riding away from the half body, Nicole was still looking back towards it after they were blocks away. It seemed to take forever for the duo to get to Nicole’s house but once they finally did, Nicole didn’t wait for Rick to stop the bike.

She hopped off that thing quick, hurting herself in the progress, and ran into her house. The door was ajar and the smell that was coming from her dad’s room was unbearable. She quickly confirmed her worse fears when she walked into it.

Her dad was dead, his brains all over the wall and dried blood on his mouth and hands. She fell to her knees and cried hard, her body shaking painfully at each sob and each sob getting stronger than the last. Her dad was dead; Rael Montez Jr was no longer a part of this world. She sat next to his body, holding his blood stained hand in hers, wondering what had happened in her father’s final moments.

Rick finally walked in and saw what was keeping Nicole. He kneeled next to her and pulled her into his arms once again, she only held onto the embrace for a few moments before standing up. He looked up at her confused, and saw she had a look of determination and sorrow on her face. She looked down at her dad once more before speaking.

“We should get some clothes, might as well eat a little bit too. My dad is dead, Rick, but I noticed my brother’s car was gone. I have to hope that Rael is still alive. I have to hope that I still have my brother.” She looked down at Rick and walked toward her room.

When she opened it, she had even more hope that her brother was alive. She jumped as Rick came up from behind her, coming to check up on her. She gave him a look and turned back around, walking toward her closet.

“How do you know?” He asked. She turned around abruptly. “You sound so sure, but how do you know for sure?”

“Well, Officer, have you ever seen one of these?” She walked to her bathroom and opened the door under the sink. He recognized the big hole cut out of the wall and rigged lights as a stash spot for growing marijuana. He gave her a look of authority, but then it turned into one of admiration.

‘So it was Nicole and Rael this whole time.’ He thought to himself, referring to the drug dealers that him and the entire police force were unable to locate and take down. ‘It makes sense.’ He continued to muse. ‘Nobody would ever expect the town lawyer’s youngest child.’ But he still wasn’t seeing how this shows that Rael was still alive somewhere.

When he voiced his opinions to Nicole, she answered with a very confident reply. “No one in the world knew about this, except Rael. I mean, come on Rick, even you couldn’t figure this thing out.” He looked at her with a look of uncertainty as she continued her answer. “He took it with him, wherever he went. He’s alive Rick, and I’m going to find him.” She walked back into her dad’s room, not looking in the direction of his body at all and went to his closet.

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m getting you some clothes.” She looked at him like he was mentally three.

“Your dad has clothes that will fit me?” Rick asked curiously, ignoring the look and walking closer to Nicole.

“You two were about the same size.” Nicole tossed him a faded tee and some jeans. “I’m going to change as well, and then we can take off to your house.” He nodded at her in thanks and she exited the room. She changed into some easy clothing: an old band tee and a pair of short denim shorts.

She pulled her hair into a high ponytail, ignoring the greasy and dirty feel and went back into her dad’s room. Rick had respectfully put a sheet over her dad and was kneeling over him. She cleared her throat and he turned toward her, rising up from his knees. He looked a little better, her dad’s clothes had fit him well and she gave a small smile. “You ready to go home?” She asked as she leaned against the door frame. He nodded and followed her back out to the front yard.

“Wait, what about your dad? Don’t you want to bury him?” She closed her eyes slowly and opened them even slower.

“Let’s go to your house first. If it’s not dark by the time we’re done at your place, we’ll come back.” She turned and walked to the bike. They got on and rode to Rick’s house. He wasn’t able to jump off as Nicole had but his eagerness was all too apparent and Nicole hopped off first, letting Rick run into his house quickly. He pushed open the door and started his search.

“Lori, Carl it’s me.” He called out, his voice echoing through the empty house. Nicole followed him inside and saw an obviously empty house. “Lori! Carl! Where are you?!” He yelled and ran through the house, looking for some sign of his family and finding none. Nicole sat on the floor near the door, letting Rick search at his leisure. However, it was obviously not going well. “LORI! CARL!”

She heard him collapse on the floor followed by sounds of hysteric sobbing. She got up and went to him, seeing him curled up in the middle of the floor. She knelt by him and held him, instead of him holding her. She cradled him gently, letting him sob and cry as much as he needed. “Is this real? Is this happening to me? Am I here right now?”

She held him tighter, not sure if he wanted her to answer or if he was asking himself. He slowly stood up and walked back outside. She didn’t follow; she knew he would need a minute to himself. She sighed and tried to replay what all had happened to her and Rick that day, they both had no family, they were both alone in a world full of death and decay and she didn’t know how long they were going to be able to make it. All of a sudden she heard a loud bang, and ran outside. Rick was on the ground and a boy was standing above him with a shovel.

“Hey!” She yelled, when she felt something collide with her head and saw two people standing over her. She heard Rick mumble something soft. It sounded like Carl and she let a small whisper escape her lips before everything went black. “Ray…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2, since I already have most of this story written, I'm going to post a chapter almost everyday so I can get it all caught up. I appreciate feedback:)


	3. Out of Harm, but Not Out of Danger...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick and Nicole learn about the two people who brought them in and they also see how much different this new world is from their old one...

Nicole slowly opened her eyes to a dark room. She tried to move but found her hands and feet were tied. Panic slowly started to seep into her brain until she felt Rick right next to her. His eyes were still closed and she tried to nudge him to wake him up when the small boy that knocked him out came into the room. “Daddy! She’s awake.” She lunged at him, scaring the boy just as his dad walked into the room.

“Let me go, you ass!” She yelled as she struggled against her bonds. She only stopped when he pulled a big handgun out and pointed it right at her face. She looked down the dark barrel and could barely make out the bullet at the end. She swallowed hard but continued to stare this man down. Rick stirred slightly and woke up, his eyes widening at the scene taking place right next to him.

“No! Leave her alone! She’s just a young girl!” Rick started struggling and it made Nicole very uncomfortable. She liked it better when he was unconscious. The man didn’t lower his defenses but he changed his tone slightly.

“Your bandages were disgusting. I changed them out for both of you. What were they? What were your wounds?” The man asked, alternating the gun between Nicole and Rick. Rick answered first.

“I was shot. I don’t what Nicole’s wound is, she never told me.”

“Only because you didn’t ask.” She replied sarcastically. All eyes were on Nicole as she slowly looked up at her captor, his son and her unlikely partner.

“Well, I’m asking you now, girl.” The man brought the gun to her face again.

“I was shot as well, at a stupid party I never wanted to go to in the first place.”

“Ok, so you both got shot, anything else?” The man asked as he slowly put his gun away only to trade it with a knife.

“Are you serious?” Nicole asked as she continued to struggle against the ropes holding her and Rick. “I was shot by a drunken dumbass at a party!” The man suddenly brought the knife to her neck and she stopped breathing all together, she just glared at her unknown captor and his small child. ‘What is going on here?’ She thought rapidly as the cold metal caused goose bumps to break out on her arms.

“You better keep your voice down, little miss.” He removed the knife but none of the hostility in his voice seemed to waver as he asked both of these strangers the same question in a very slow and menacing voice. “Did either of you get bit?”

“Bit?” Rick asked slowly eyeing the knife.

“Yea, bit. Maybe even scratched, chewed a little, anything at all?”

“I was shot, dude. That’s all. I swear to you.”

“So was I. I’m sure I would remember being bit.” Rick and Nicole looked up at this man, and his eyes seemed to soften slightly but not enough to let them go. He reached his hand out to Nicole and she flinched, scooting as close to Rick as she possibly could.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He said softly as he placed a hand on Nicole’s cool and clammy brow. She kept her eyes closed and made sure she could still feel Rick next to her. Finally, he removed his hand and opened her eyes, seeing the man repeat the same process with Rick. The man then turned to his son and nodded. “They feel pretty cool. The fever would have killed the both of them by now.”

“We don’t have fevers. I can feel Nicole’s skin right now, she’s not even warm.” Rick told the man as he went to his side of the bed.

“Well that is one hard thing to miss. Your skin would be on fire right now.” The man sat on the bed and showed his knife to the both of them. “I want you to memorize the way this looks, the shape, the curve the sharpness. If either of you try anything, I will kill both of you without even thinking twice.” The threat in his voice was too much to argue with. Rick and Nicole didn’t say anything as he cut their ropes and stood up. “Come on out when you can, we’re cooking dinner. My name’s Morgan and this is my son, Duane.”

Morgan and Duane left the room and Nicole and Rick were left to their thoughts, wondering what the hell had just happened. Nicole was the first to move; she threw her legs over the side of the bed and sat upright. She rolled her shoulders and winced, as the pain on her side caused her to fall to the ground. Rick quickly got up and helped her, careful not to cause himself pain as well.

“Just relax, just chill ok. Calm down and breathe. Just breathe Nicole.” Rick rubbed her back and she finally was able to stand. She stood high and tall, really wishing she had a joint right now.

“I hurt still, my shot feels like its on fire sometimes.” He nodded once she looked up in his eyes.

“I know, I hurt too, let’s get some food in us.” He carefully led her to the other room, where Morgan and Duane were heating a bowl of beans over a small candle.

“That smells good.” Nicole smiled as she sat next to Duane. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in a year.” Morgan chuckled at the sight of Nicole’s eyes as Duane piled up the beans on her plate. Rick continued walking around the house.

“I’ve been here before. Fred and Cindy Drake live here.”

“We live here now. This place was completely empty when we got here. I never knew those people, the one’s you’re talking about.” He piled beans on a plate for Rick as he walked to the window. “Stop, they’re going to see the light if you do that.” Nicole looked up from her beans and Rick looked away from the window.

“They?” Rick and Nicole both said at the same time.

“The walkers. There are a lot of them outside tonight.”

“I’m sorry, Dad. I thought I could handle it. I didn’t mean to make you fire that gun.” Morgan grabbed his son’s arm in a gentle way.

“Duane it was worth saving you. I don’t regret it at all.” Nicole didn’t even know her tears were falling until Duane pointed it out.

“What’s the matter?” Nicole looked away and wiped her eyes. “Why are you crying?” He asked as he put a hand on her shoulder. Rick sat at the table and looked across it at Nicole.

“I’m not crying.” She said a little roughly, and looked away from everyone.

“She lost her dad. We were going to bury him before it got dark, but that never happened.” Nicole stopped crying as quickly as she started and continued eating. Duane looked at her in confusion as Morgan turned to Rick, wanting to get some explanation. Rick didn’t have one and he just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“Why don’t we stop talking about that? How about you tell me what’s the world gone to? What exactly is going on here?” Nicole asked once she trusted herself not to cry again. “What are walkers? What happened?” She looked at Morgan and he sighed as he and Duane stood up, clearing the table and putting everything away.

“How do you not know?” That was all he asked. Nicole had to stop herself from shouting.

“I woke up today, ran into this guy, came home and found my dad dead on the floor of his room. That’s all I know.” Nicole sat on the floor and crossed her arms.

“I don’t mean to get you upset, Nicole.” Morgan kneeled down and touched her shoulder. She looked to him and was just about to say something when a car alarm started going off. Duane jumped and Morgan reached for him, as Rick went to Nicole.

“What’s going on?” She whispered to Rick as Morgan and Duane shut off all the candles and walked to the window.

“I don’t know.” He got up and went to the window with Nicole following him.

“One of the walkers just bumped a car. It’s always the same blue one.” Morgan told Rick as Nicole peeked out of the window and watched as walkers roamed the streets, unaware of each other. A woman came into view and Duane gave a small gasp next to Nicole.

“She’s here.” The woman looked like she was once very beautiful, but now she looked…dead. There was no life in her eyes and her eye sockets were visible underneath her taunt skin. She was opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water. It was horrifying.

“Get back Duane. Get away from the window. Now!” Duane left the window and ran to his and Morgan’s mattress on the floor. Morgan ran after him and left Nicole and Rick at the window. Nicole turned to see Morgan holding onto Duane as he cried into a pillow. “That’s right, son. Let it all out, right into the pillow. Just like I told you, remember. It’s alright.” Rick kept watching this woman; she was looking at the house as if she somehow knew who was inside. She left his sight and Nicole quietly ran to the door and looked out the peephole. She was walking up the steps, right to the door and looked right into Nicole’s eye.

She then looked at the doorknob as Nicole did the same. She saw it jingle and gulped in fear, slowly backing away from the door. She went and knelt next to Rick, who was talking with Morgan. “That was my wife.” Rick and Nicole looked up at him as he continued to tell his story. “She was bit by one of those dead pieces of…” He exhaled sharply, and wasn’t ashamed of the tears falling freely. ”That’s why we posted up here. The streets were packed, too unfit to be on. Then, she started coming down with that fever. She couldn’t even move, so we didn’t try. Man, that fever was something else. Her skin was like its own sun. Then she died, and we were planning on burying her properly. That didn’t happen, because she came back, but she wasn’t herself. She was one of the walkers. I was going to end it, I swear it was, but I just couldn’t. I mean, she’s my wife. She’s the mother of my only child.”

He held onto Duane and didn’t say anymore. After about five minutes, Duane had fallen asleep, and Morgan got up to show Rick and Nicole where they would be sleeping. It was just one mattress. “Sorry, but that’s the only one.” Nicole went and laid down immediately falling asleep. Rick thanked Morgan and he exited the room, leaving Rick to his thoughts and a small mattress with a twenty year old woman already occupying it.

He sighed and went to sit on the edge farthest away from Nicole. He thought about his wife and son, he thought about what he was going to do when the sun rose in the morning. He lay down next to Nicole and with his back to her; he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Nicole woke with a start. She had a dream about her dad and Rael, and found her face was wet. She sighed and closed her eyes, laying her head back on Rick’s chest. Her eyes popped open and she jumped off the mattress so quick, she tripped on the one sheet and landed on the wooden floor with a hard thud, right on her gunshot wound.

The thud was loud enough to spring Morgan, Rick and Duane from their sleep and they all looked at Nicole as she lay out on the floor, gritting her teeth to keep a pain filled scream from escaping her lips. “What the hell happened to you?” Morgan asked as Nicole stayed on the spot where she fell.

“I woke up, dazed and confused, not knowing where I was and tripped.” She said, deciding to leave the part out where she woke up in a very compromising position. She grunted softly as pain still continued to shoot up her back.

Rick went to extend a helping hand which she gratefully accepted. He pulled her on her feet and she thanked him, trying to hide that fact that she had bonded with him. She decided that while on the floor, there was no other explanation for what happened this morning.

She wasn’t feeling romantic feelings for him, ‘No way!’, but they had escaped that hospital together. He had her back and she had his. He was like a father figure to her, now that her real father was dead. She sighed and looked at the rays of sunshine that were trickling in from the curtains over the windows. “Well, today seems like a good day to bury my dad.” Nicole said as she walked to the door to look out of the peephole. “You're still going to help me, right Rick?” She turned and asked Rick.

“Of course, Nicole.” He turned to Morgan and Duane, who nodded as if already knowing what he was asking them.

“Let me get the hammer and bat so we can go out there.” Morgan said as he disappeared deeper into the house. Nicole took a deep breath and looked back at the door, wondering if she was as lost as she felt or if these small rays of early morning sunshine would grow into better and brighter days for both her and Rick. All she could do was wonder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3, Morgan and Duane become Rick and Nicole's new friends, but the question still remains; are their families still alive?


	4. Caught Like A Fly In a Dead Spider's Web...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan, Duane, Rick and Nicole all went their separate ways, and Nicole and Rick head into the city unsure of what awaits them...

Once they got outside, Nicole and Rick learned the first and only lesson on how to kill a walker: hit them in the head. It was something in the brain’s that made them come back. Nicole and Rick got a hang of the walker killing pretty easily and soon they were at Nicole’s house.

The stink had gotten worse and some walkers had found their way into the house. “I should’ve closed the door.” Nicole said after she took down the last walker which had wondered into Rael’s room. Morgan and Duane had gone into Nicole’s father’s room to respectfully pay their respects.

Then, Morgan and Rick wrapped the sheet tighter around the body as Nicole and Duane led the make shift funeral procession to the back yard. Nicole wanted to be the one who dug the hole with no help. It took her about an hour before Rick and Morgan finally lowered Rael Montez Jr into the ground. Nicole buried her father with the help of Rick, Morgan and Duane. It wasn’t even noon yet and Nicole got it set in her mind that she was going to look for her brother. “He’s still alive.” She said to no one.

“Who?” Duane asked curiously from his spot next to her under the big tree in her backyard.

“My big brother, Rael. He’s still alive, I know he is, and I’m going to find him.” She stood up and took a few steps forward. “I want to thank you, all of you, for your help. However, this is something I have to do alone, so I’m leaving.” She turned around and saw the shocked and confused faces of her three fellow survivors.

“Nicole, what chance do you think you have on your own?” Morgan asked.

“He’s right Nicole. I’m not letting you go anywhere alone.” Rick said, standing up.

“Rick, you don’t need to help me. I can take care of myself. I’m not your problem and you don’t owe me anything, alright!” She yelled at him. She walked into the house and Rick just pulled her back and held tightly onto her arms. “Let go of me, you pig!” She yelled, struggling against his iron grip.

“No! That’s not fair, Nicole. After all we have been through since running into each other at that damn hospital, how are you just going to leave? I told you, I would have your back and I do, even in this! I have to find my family too, did you forget? We can look together. We can protect one another, but even if you leave you’re not leaving alone. I would never let you go off alone!”

Nicole didn’t try to hide the tears, there was no point. He wanted to help, after all this time after everything he has already done for her, he wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. Without realizing it, she was hugging him, holding onto him as if he were her last and only lifeline. Which in a sense, he was. She knew that she would never get far without him and that she didn’t really want to be on her own. Her foolish pride was what put the idea of solo searching in her mind.

“I’m sorry Rick. I don’t want to be on my own, I don’t want to be left alone.” She cried hysterically and Rick just kept comforting her, not judging her or calling her weak. He comforted her, just the way her dad used to comfort her.

“You will never be on your own Nicole. I will never leave you, ever.” He looked her in the eyes and got down on his knees, holding her hands tightly in his. “I swear to you, on your father’s grave, with his spirit as my witness, that as long as I have air in my lungs, blood in my body and a heart beat in my chest, I will be by your side to protect you and help you find what you have lost.” Rick stood back up and hugged Nicole close, letting a few tears of his own fall.

She sobbed into Rick’s chest and he soothed her, caressed her and held her close. After about five minutes, Nicole gently pushed Rick away and she took a deep breath.

“Ok, we will find them Rick. We will find Lori, Carl and Rael. We will all be ok. I’m sure of it.” She looked up and smiled at Rick. He smiled right back at her and they went to join Morgan and Duane outside.

“Nicole, I may know where your brother might be at, your family too Rick.” Morgan said as they went back through the house to get to the front yard. “They’re probably in Dallas. That’s where the CDC is and the refugee center. Before the broadcast stopped they were telling people to go there, that it was huge and had all sorts of perks, like protection and food. We were on our way there ourselves.” Morgan motioned to Duane and he was by his side. “But after my wife died, we just didn’t leave, haven’t worked up to it yet. However, Dallas won’t be an easy trip. We need supplies if we’re going to set out and we’re down to our last crate of food.” Rick got a small smile of his face as he stepped out into the street.

“I know of a place where we can get supplies. The police station, it has guns and food. We just have to go to my house so I can get the keys.” He said as he gave a happy smile to Nicole.

“Well, let’s go. I got your back.” She said as she held her bat at the ready.

“We do too, Rick.” Morgan said as he held Duane close. Rick nodded at everybody and they nodded back signaling that they were ready to go. At Rick’s house Nicole saw how the cop once used to live. He was a man of simple taste with a nice T.V. and decent living room set. ‘He’s got some style, I give him that much.’ She thought. He busted into the house and ran for a small door in the kitchen. He grabbed a ring of keys and called out.

“Nicole? Morgan? Duane?” Nicole came out of Carl’s room, admiring the kid’s impressive collection of video games. Morgan and Duane were in the living room, sitting on the couch. “You guys ready?” They nodded and Morgan grabbed Rick’s arm on the way out.

“Why don’t we drive? Let’s go back to my place. The station’s too far to walk to anyways.”

“That’s a good idea. I honestly don’t think I can walk that much more. My gunshot is killing me.” Nicole said.

“Alright, let’s head out.” Rick said. When they got to the police station, Rick wasn’t kidding when he said there would be food. Nicole’s eyes gleamed at the sight of heat able non perishable items. Rick then led them to the showers, where he turned the water on.

“It’s cold water. We haven’t had a hot shower in over a month.”

“Lucky for us, the station has its very own propane system.” He ran his hand under the water and smiled. “The pilots still on.” Morgan and Duane decided they would like showers in hot water, and Nicole wanted something to eat. Rick then lead her to the kitchens where there were microwavable noodles, soda pop, and different kinds of bags of chips. Nicole gathered up four of everything and set it down on a break table. “You like those noodles?” Rick asked her as she started filling one with water then popped it in the microwave. “I could never eat them. My partner Shane Walsh ate those things like there was no tomorrow.” She smiled then remembered Shane. He was that asshole of a cop who always pulled her over for no apparent reason, embarrassed her by searching her car every time he pulled her over and overall, she just didn’t like him. However, he was the one who was the closest to blowing her cover as the Raventon Drug Lord, so she gave him a little credit.

“I love noodles.” She gave him a smile as she saw Morgan and Duane looking clean and happy as they walked into the kitchen.

“Nicole, let me finish cooking. You go ahead and shower.” Morgan said as he began opening the rest of the noodles.

“Thanks Morgan.” She smiled at him and walked to the showers, giving Duane a high five on her way out. She got to the showers and found a shower stall complete with a curtain. She got behind the curtain and undressed, throwing her dirty clothes in the next stall. She let the hot water run over her body and she felt the past two days stress and worry seem to go down the drain with the water. She shampooed her hair, admiring that it had gotten a little longer in the time that she was unconscious at the hospital. After she rinsed, she conditioned, letting her hair absorb the moisture as she scrubbed the filth off of her body. She thought about Ray, she thought about how he was doing and if he was alive at all. She cried softly, she cried for her dad and all the bodies she saw at the hospital. She cried for Ray and Lori and Carl and Rael. She hoped they were ok, she actually prayed that they were ok, even though it looked like God was on vacation or something. She looked down at herself, content with how her clean body shone and rinsed her hair. She turned off the water and swore under her breath. She had forgotten to get a towel. “Rick? Hey Rick!” He jogged into the showers and saw Nicole hiding behind the shower curtain.

“Are you alright?” He asked, keeping his gaze down at the floor.

“Yea, I just need a towel.” He left for a few seconds and came back with a soft white towel. He threw it and it landed right on the curtain bar. “Thank you.” She said as she grabbed the towel. She quickly dried her hair as fast as she could then dry her body afterwards. She then grabbed her Jake backpack and pulled out her clothes. She pulled out a plain white tank top, a Calvin and Hobbes hoodie, a pair of knee high sexy heel boots with an x-ray skeleton design, a pair of white super skinny jeans, a red Crooks and Castles beanie and a her pink retro sunglasses. She put on a white bra with matching lace panties, then her skinnies and tank top. She then put on her gray socks and did up her boots, tucking her jeans into them and zipped and laced them up. She put her hoodie on, then her beanie and finally, her sunglasses. She smiled at her reflection and walked out of the showers to the awaiting smell of her noodles. After Rick had showered and everyone was full and satisfied, Rick led them through the police station, stopping at a huge cage like structure. It was almost completely full of guns and ammunition. Nicole smiled as she thought of her brother. She was glad that his love for artillery rubbed off on her.

“Alright, even though a lot of its missing, there is still enough for the four of us. Nicole, I already know you know how to shoot. You’re brother is a great shot, so I figure you have to be as good as him.” She laughed smugly as she accepted the handgun he gave her.

“I’m better than him, Rick, get that straight.” She said. Morgan and Duane laughed as Rick shook his head with a grin on his face. He separated the ammunition and with Nicole’s help separated it all into different piles, depending on the weapon they went with.

“Hey Dad, can I learn to shoot?”

“Yes you can, but you can’t take it lightly, son.” Morgan told Duane as Rick filled a huge bag with the rest of the guns and ammo.

“He’s right.” Nicole said. “My dad used to tell me, that when you pulled the trigger you had to consider not what you were killing but what you were letting live. I think he got that from a movie or something, actually.” Nicole just shrugged her shoulders and once again Rick was surprised by her strange nature.

“You have to respect the weapon, Duane.” He said after had gotten over Nicole’s weird statement. “That’s one thing you can’t forget.”

“Yes sir.” Rick, Nicole, Morgan and Duane all went out to the backside of the police station, where Morgan had parked his car.

“Here son, go put this in the car.” Morgan handed his bag to Duane and he took off. Rick gave Nicole theirs and she went to the police cruiser, popping open the passenger side.

“Morgan, are you sure you and Duane don’t want to come with us?” Rick asked as Duane and Nicole returned from the cars.

“Give me three days. That will give me enough time to take care of some things and Duane will be able to shoot.” Morgan said.

“I don’t like this.” Nicole said. “I want you guys to come with us.” She felt tears stinging her eyes and she looked at the ground.

“Don’t worry Nicole.” Duane walked up to her and took her hand. “Me and my pop will be ok; you go find your family. Then we will look for you, and find you.” He smiled at her and she took him into a hug. In the short hours she had known Duane, he became the little brother she never had.  
“I will see you again.” Duane said as he walked back next to his dad. Morgan walked up to Nicole and hugged her.

“You’re a fighter, Nicole Montez. I know you will find what you’re looking for, and I know we will see each other again.”

“Thanks for not killing us.” She said jokingly, and he laughed, playfully swatting her head as she walked to the police cruiser. Rick and Morgan shook hands and said their goodbyes. Nicole was crying when Rick got into the cruiser. He placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

“We will see them again.” She nodded and looked up at him.

“You’re right. Let’s be off.” She said and he started the cruiser and they drove out of the lot after exchanging friendly farewell honks with Morgan and Duane. They drove for two hours, exiting the town of Raventon, en route to the city of Dallas. However, just as they were about to reach the outskirts of the city, the cruiser came to a slow stop. Nicole, who was asleep in the passenger seat, bolted upright, not from the cruiser stopping but from the nightmare she was having.

“It’s alright Nicole. They car just ran out of gas.” He pulled the visor down and grabbed a picture that was hiding there. It was Rick with a woman and small boy.

“Is that them?” Nicole asked as they got out of the useless car. “Is that Lori and Carl?”

“Yes.” He said as he put the picture in his pocket. She looked around as she slung her backpack over her shoulders. They couldn’t pick a worse spot to break down; there was not a single house in sight.

“Hey Rick!” Nicole spotted something that may just be their ticket out of this mess. “There’s a horse.” Rick looked in the direction she was pointing at and sue enough there was a light brown horse, grazing peacefully. He started to walk toward it, but it backed away. Nicole laughed and walked past Rick, singing softly. “Drink up, beautiful, I’ve spiked your cup with angst and a heart attack.” The horse looked up and slowly started making its way to the gate. “I’ve got so much trapped, it’s all because of you so I figured you might like some back.” The horse got closer and Nicole sang softer. “And when I see her, I’ll tell her what’s been on my mind all these sleepless nights. She’ll recite her excuses; put my tail between these legs of mine, like I do all the time.” The horse was at the fence and Nicole was smiling, petting the horse and running her fingers through its mane. Rick looked at her in surprise as she opened the fence and got on the horse.

“How did you do that?” Rick asked as she stopped the horse right next to him.

“My grandpa had horses. He showed me a few tricks.” She said with a smile.

“Well alright, then.” He said as he hopped on the horse behind her. She gripped onto the horse’s mane and got more comfortable.

“Better hold on.” She said as she gave a loud ‘Hiya!’ and the horse took off running down the road. Rick had to grab onto Nicole before he got thrown off. They rode like the wind and were at the city limits in an hour and thirty minutes. Nicole smiled to herself as she saw the skyline of Dallas Texas. She urged the horse forward and at a steady pace, they entered the city. As they rode through the city, Nicole couldn’t make heads or tails of the city she and her family used to come Christmas shopping or out to eat to celebrate a big win for her dad. There were no people, no pushy street vendors or sidewalk entertainers. The city was dead. Nicole sighed softly as the horse passed by a burnt out bus. Something inside caused the horse to rear up in fear, almost knocking Rick to the ground again. “Sshhh, Phillip! It’s ok.” Rick looked at her like she was insane.

“Phillip? Did you just name the horse?” He asked.

“Yes I did, Rick Grimes. Don’t tread on me, or I’ll have Phillip drop you.” She threatened and Phillip neighed as if agreeing with Nicole. All of a sudden, Rick looked up hearing a very familiar noise. Nicole didn’t seem to hear it and he looked all around the sky for any sign of the helicopter. He saw it and grabbed Nicole’s arm roughly. “Ow Rick! What the hell?”

“There’s a helicopter!” he said as he pointed to the sky. “See it?” She looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun seeing no sign of a helicopter.

“Rick your crazy!”

“Let’s go Phillip!” He kicked his heels into the horse’s sides and he took off, running in the direction Rick had seen helicopter going.

“Rick, there wasn’t a helicopter.”

“Yes there is. It’s right around the corner.” Once they turned the corner, they didn’t find a helicopter, but a huge horde of walkers. Nicole screamed and Phillip reared up neighing in fear. “Run Phillip!” Rick yelled as Nicole led him the other way, running at full speed down the street. They didn’t get far when another horde came out of nowhere and blocked them off. In a matter of seconds, walkers were all around Phillip biting at his legs and body. He threw Rick and Nicole and the walkers brought him down, feasting on his flesh.

“No! Phillip!” Nicole started shooting walkers in the head trying to get to the lost horse. Rick grabbed her before she got too far and threw her on the ground next to a tank.

“Crawl Nicole! Get under the tank!” He covered her and she covered him, as the crawled under the tank. Nicole spotted a life line that saved her and Rick’s life.

“A door! Rick, there’s a door! Come on!” She shot a walker that was just about to bite Rick. “Hurry!” She crawled up into the hole on the belly of the tank and pulled Rick up after her. Once he was in she slammed the door. Rick and Nicole leaned against each other in the tank, both covered in gore and breathless. Nicole then turned to Rick and started hitting him. He took the blows with a confused look on his face. “You got Phillip killed!” She yelled in between blows. “There wasn’t a helicopter, Rick!” he grabbed her wrists and she struggled and kicked, knocking the boot of a dead soldier that was in the tank.

“Nicole, I’m sorry alright, but there was a helicopter. I saw it.” She turned away from him and saw that the dead soldier wasn’t exactly dead. He lunged for Nicole and she screamed, firing the gun on instinct. The shot reverberated in the tank and Nicole and Rick covered their ears. The ringing was painful and terribly unbearable but it didn’t last long. Nicole and Rick sat on opposite sides of the tank, not making eye contact or speaking.

“Rick, what are we going to do now?” Before he could answer the radio in the tank crackled and a voice came through.

“Hey dumb and dumber. How’s that tank? Pretty cozy, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, looks like Rick and Nicole got themselves stuck in a tank, and a mysterious voice over the radio just might be able to help them...


	5. Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies in Kissing Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mysterious person hidden in the tank's radio comes to Rick and Nicole's rescue. However, his friends are out for blood and Nicole has to think quick in order to keep blood from being spilt.

“Hello? Are you idiots alive in there?” The voice said and Nicole stood up quickly forgetting she was in a small space and banged her head hard.

“Son of a bitch!” She yelled as she curled up in the fetal position and rubbed her head. Rick looked at her and hurried to the radio.

“Yes, we’re still alive.” Rick said as Nicole crawled to where he was.

“What about the woman is she alive too?”

“Yes, I’m here.” Nicole said.

“Where are you? Are you outside?” Rick asked.

“Can you see us?” Nicole yelled.

“Yes, yes and yes. You’re surrounded by walkers. What the hell were you thinking?”

“Look guy, we had no choice but to come in here. We would have been eaten like poor Phillip, so don’t tread on me!” Nicole yelled into the radio and Rick gave her a look.

“Alright sorry. Now, listen closely, we don’t have a lot of time. Thanks to Phillip going down, the walkers are distracted. You guys may be able to make it to me. You guys with me so far?”

“Yea, bud, keep talking.” Nicole said.

“Alright, all you guys have to do is take out the one walker still on the take and book it. How much ammo you guys have?”

“Hang on.” Nicole turned and saw Rick in shock.

“I dropped the bag outside!”

“Fuck! Now what are we going to do?” Nicole looked at Rick and he grabbed her arms.

“Calm down Nicole. Let’s look around here. How much do you have left?” She checked her bag and sighed.

“I still have a full clip. I think we can make it.” She said, with not a lot of confidence in her voice. She looked down as something hit her foot. It was a small grenade. She picked it up and put it in her bag. “Let me tell that guy.” She ran to the radio and talked into it. “Hey guy we have a full clip and is there any way we can get to that bag on the street?”

“Not if you want to live! Ok, all you have to do is get out off the tank, jump off of the right side and run in that direction for about fifty yards. I’ll be there.”

“Alright Rick, you ready?” Nicole asked as she tucked the gun in the waistband of her jeans and grabbed an axe that was leaning against the wall.

“Yea.” He opened the tank door and saw the one walker. Nicole got out quickly and swung the axe, and smiled as the walkers head split. They jumped off the tank and ran in the direction their mysterious savior told them to go. Nicole was swinging her axe and Rick was firing his gun. All of a sudden a cute Asian came out of nowhere and Nicole almost chopped his head off.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t kill me! Come on, let’s go!” He took off down the alley and Rick and Nicole followed him. Rick had Nicole run in front so he could shoot walkers that were running after them. They finally came to a ladder on the side of the building and the Asian quickly started climbing up. Nicole followed him right away but Rick was still shooting. “Dude, come on! What are you doing?!” The Asian yelled down and Rick started climbing. It took a little while but they got to a stairwell and took a break. “Well if it isn’t the Lone Rider and Tonto, riding into town.” The Asian said as he leaned against the rail.

“Tonto? Is that a crack at Mexicans?” Nicole asked the Asian, but Rick grabbed her shoulder.

“My name is Rick Grimes. This young lady is Nicole Montez. Thank you for saving us.”

“My name’s Glen and you’re welcome.” Glen led Nicole and Rick up the roof where they went into the store through another ladder.

“I do not like all these ladders.” Nicole said as they hopped off and continued running.

“It doesn’t look like you have the shoes for ladders.” Glen said, commenting on her sexy heels. “I’m surprised you can even run in them.”

“Oh, it’s not my shoes. I could run for miles in my heels. I just don’t like hanging on to things.” Nicole answered; making sure Rick was still behind her. She had grown accustomed to him and she would hate to lose him now. He smiled at her and she turned forward and noticed Glen had pulled a walkie talkie out of his backpack.

“It’s me, I’m on my way with guests and there are four geeks in the alley.” He put the walkie back and stopped on some stairs. There were for walkers headed right for them. All of a sudden, two figures in strange hockey gear armed with baseball bats came busting through the doors and started beating the walkers. “Alright let’s go!” Glen yelled and they all ran into the doors that the figures just busted out of. Once they were in, a blonde woman pushed Rick and put a gun to his head.

“You son of a bitch! I should shoot you!” Nicole pulled her gun out and pointed it at the blonde woman.

“It will be the last thing you ever do, bitch.” Nicole said, as she eyed this blonde with a hateful expression.

“Nicole, it’s alright. Just put your gun down.” Glen said, calmly walking towards her.

“This bitch has a gun pointed at my partners head. When she lowers hers, I’ll lower mine.” The blonde woman then turned to Nicole slowly and eyed her up and down before lowering her gun. True to her word, Nicole lowered hers.

“You two just killed us, all of us.” She walked away and stood next to a black lady, while a big Mexican and big black guy came back from inside.

“What are you talking about?” Rick said and the big Mexican grabbed his and Nicole’s arms roughly and led them toward the entrance of the store.

“Listen both of you; we only came here to get supplies. In this dead world you have to be quiet if you don’t want to get caught. You two stupid asses kept shooting up the place and all the walkers heard you.” He pushed Nicole and Rick once they got to the doors.

“Like Andrea said, you just killed us all.” The big black guy said.

“Look at all the walkers!” Andrea yelled. “How the hell are we supposed to get out now, huh?” Andrea pushed Nicole into Rick and Nicole turned around with a look that could kill on her face.

“Look, it wasn’t our fault!” Nicole said as she got in Andrea’s face. “My fucking bad if Rick had to shoot a few rounds to save our asses! He only did it to save us! He would’ve done it to save you too, I bet. That’s the kind of man he is.” Nicole got closer and tightened the grip on her gun. “I however, am not so holy. And personally, I would’ve shot your ass in the leg and let you get eaten alive!” Andrea and the rest of this unknown group looked at Nicole in fear. Rick gave a small smile and came up from behind Nicole and pulled her away.

“Nicole, calm down ok? She was just worried about her group. You would’ve done the same thing wouldn’t you?” She growled and turned away, but then sighed and turned back around.

“I’m sorry Andrea. It’s just; I’ve been though some crazy shit with this guy.” She looked at Rick. “I have his back.” Andrea seemed to understand.

“Don’t worry about it; it was the heat of the moment.” She smiled and Nicole and she smiled back. All of a sudden, shots were heard from the roof, and the big black guy swore under his breath.

“I’m going to kill that crazy asshole!” He said as he and the rest of his group began running toward the roof.

“What the hell is Dixon thinking?” The big Mexican said as they pounded up the stairs and pushed the door open.

“Dixon, what the hell, man?” The big black guy, whose name was T-Dog, yelled as he ran up to the redneck, who had been shooting walkers.

“What?” He chuckled and kept shooting. As Nicole got closer to this guy, she could tell he was lit. She had been around all sorts of drugs long enough that she could tell he just did a couple lines of that white girl.

“Dixon, come one man, stop shooting that gun, you’re just attracting more walkers.” The Mexican, whose name was Morales, walked up to Dixon and tried to calm him down.

“You don’t tell me what to do, you fucking beaner.” He said, as he put his gun down and walked toward Morales. Rick and Nicole looked at Glen and he shook his head, signaling them that this man was not one to be reasoned with.

“Hey, that’s a cruel thing to say!” Andrea said as she stayed next to the black woman, whose name was Jacqui.

“Nobody asked you, sugar tits. Why don’t you step away from the nigger and come on over here with me.” All of a sudden, T-Dog swung at Dixon and hit him in the back of the head. Dixon then turned around and punched T-Dog. T-Dog fell to the ground and Dixon kept hitting him over and over again. Rick and Morales tried to pull him off but were both punched and knocked to the floor. Dixon then pulled a gun out and pointed it right at T-Dog. Nicole gasped and ran to where Rick had fallen. They both looked over at Dixon and Nicole had to think fast. He looked like he was ready to shoot T-Dog in the face. Nicole then quickly whispered something to Rick and she stood up and walked to where Dixon was.

“Wow, I love a man who takes charge.” Nicole said in the sexiest voice she could muster. He turned around and saw who was talking to him. His eyebrows raised and a smirk came to his lips. She pulled her hoodie off, showing that she had a body under all the clothes. “How about you get off that guy and we have ourselves a little fun, right here in front of all these people.” The group looked at her and some of them realized what she was doing while others were looking at her like she was mental.

“Oh really?” He asked as he put his gun on the ground and walked toward her.

“Yea, just sit there and let me ride you home.” She brought her lips to his, trying hard not to let her disgust show on her face. He put his hands on her butt and sat on the floor, as he started undoing his pants. While he looked down, she pulled her gun out and hit him in the head hard. Rick then came out of nowhere and handcuffed him to a piece of metal. Once he saw he had been duped, he swung at Nicole and his fist collided with her face. T-Dog caught her and Rick punched Dixon, breaking his nose.

“You fucking pig, if I get out of here you and your whore are going to pay!” Rick ran over to check on Nicole and saw her eye was already starting to swell.

“Oh my God, are you ok?” He asked. She nodded, and threw a hateful glance to Dixon as he threw her one right back.

“I’m alright Rick. I’ve been hit harder. Personally, Dixon hits like a pansy bitch.” Dixon struggled against the handcuff, not liking the comment Nicole made about his punch.

“So what are two, a couple?” Morales asked.

“No, we ran into each other in the hospital we both woke up.” Rick explained.

“That’s intense.” Glen said.

“Sorry to break up your tea party, but we need to find a way out of here.” T-Dog said.

“You’re right.” Rick said. “Let me see those binoculars.” Morales handed them to Rick and he looked down at the city streets. “I think I found our ticket out of here.” He showed them what he was looking at; it was a construction site with vehicles in the lot.

“Of course! We can go to the construction site and get one of those cars! They always have keys on hand.” Nicole said as she realized Rick’s plan.

“Yea, but how are we going to get passed the walkers?” Morales asked. Nicole got an evil idea and let a smile just as evil come to her lips.

“I know just the perfect way to do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the survivors are trapped but our girl, Nicole, may just be able to get them out. Big thanks to Lunara Wolf for the kudos and comment.


	6. We Had Been Searching For What We Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole hatches a plan to try to save the survivors from being killed in the department store. Will her plan work?

Nicole didn’t tell anyone her plan; she just grabbed her hoodie and took off. “Nicole!” Rick yelled after her but she didn’t stop. She booked it down the stairwell and stopped at the doors of the department story, where Rick, Andrea, Glen and Jacqui caught up with her. A walker had used a rock to bust open the first set of doors and was working on the second.

“We don’t have a lot of time!” Nicole yelled as she turned and ran to the door where she, Rick and Glen had gone in. She opened the door and ran to the nearest walker. She tried to pull it, but wasn’t able to. “Rick!” She yelled and he came out and helped her. Together they dragged the walker body into the department store. Once it was in, she took off again, not telling anyone what her plan was.

“What is her problem?” Glen asked Rick as she ran all over the store getting various items.

“She has a plan.” Rick answered. She came back with rubber gloves and smocks.

“Alright, I’m going to chop this guy up, and the rest of you are going to smother it’s goo on all over me. I’ll be wearing one of these smocks. Then, I will walk past the walkers and get a truck and come back for you guys.”

“That’s a terrible idea. How do you even know it will work? The walkers will eat you!” Andrea yelled.

“They will not. I’ll smell like one of them. It’s a fool proof plan.” She grabbed her axe and went out to where to the walker body was at. “There is a smell difference. That’s how they can tell us from them. If I smell like one, I’ll be safe.” She looked at Rick and already knew he was going to protest. “Don’t start Rick. You saw the walkers at the door; we don’t have a lot of time.”

“You’re not going alone.” He grabbed an extra smock and put it on. “You should know this by now Nicole.” She smiled and Glen stepped up.

“I'll go, too.” Nicole shook her head.

“I don’t want to risk you life, Glen.”

“Look, you need one of us to keep in contact with the store. Besides, I know my way around.” He grabbed the last smock. “I have your back.” He smiled at Nicole and she smiled back.

“What about Merle Dixon?” Andrea asked. Rick pulled the handcuff key out and gave it to Andrea.

“Give this to T-Dog.” He said. Andrea nodded and took the key as Nicole raised her axe over the walker. “Wait.” She looked at Rick and he knelt down, searching the walker’s pockets. “I want to know who this man is.”

“Well, I don’t. I want to live.” Nicole said as she put on a put on protective face gear and brought the axe down on the walker’s chest. Rick quickly jumped out of the way as she brought the axe down again and again. Nicole had a gruesome and eerie smile on her face as she chopped up the walker into unrecognizable mush. It didn’t go unnoticed and Glen, Jacqui and Andrea moved away from Nicole, worried about her mental stability. Once she was done, she donned a pair of rubber gloves and began rubbing the goo all over her smock. Jacqui and Andrea put gloves on and started helping out, rubbing the walker goo on Glen and Rick. The process took five minutes and Glen, Nicole and Rick walked out of the door and walked through the barricaded alley. Nicole’s plan seemed to be working, they had walked by a couple of stray walkers and they didn’t even look at the small group. “I told you, losers.” Nicole whispered as they got to the truck that had been parked in front of the alley. Once they crawled under the truck and emerged on to the street, the rest of the job was a cake walk. They walked slowly to the fenced construction zone. However, their victory was not short lived. It began to rain. Nicole swore under her breath as the water washed away any trace of walker from their smocks.

“Oh man, the smells washing off isn’t it?” Glen asked as a walker walked past him, but then turned right back around.

“No, it’s not.” Rick replied. A walker looked right at Nicole and started running. “Well maybe it is.” The walker charged and Nicole split its head with her axe.

“RUN!” She yelled as she took out another walker. Glen shot walkers coming in from the rear, Rick shot the ones coming right toward them and Nicole killed the ones who got to close. They finally made it to the fence and climbed over, landing roughly but having no time to dwell on pain, they were about to be surrounded. They needed to get the truck and fast. They threw off their useless smocks and ran to the trucks. They spread out, searching for one big enough for the whole group with the keys inside. “Over here, I got one!” Nicole yelled as she hoped into the driver’s side and started the truck. Glen and Rick hopped in and she took off, crashing down a fence on the way out.

“We need to go back! Nicole, turn the truck around!” Glen yelled.

“There are walkers all over that place, Glen! We need to drive the walkers away from there if we’re going to get your friends out!” Nicole said as she drove around looking for anything that could help them.

“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” Glen asked.

“Noise.” Rick said when he saw that Nicole had parked next to a very nice red Camaro. She got out and busted the window with her axe. Just as she had hoped, the cars alarm started blaring. She opened the door and hopped in, quickly hot wiring it. Once it started, she twisted the cords together and went back to the truck.

“Glen, you drive the car. Where that big loading bay is, that’s where your friends need to be waiting for us. That’s the area they need cleared. Use your walkie and get a hold of them to let them know to get down there now. Once you have the walkers on your tail, drive down that street in front of us, so we’ll know that the coast is clear.” He nodded and got in the car as Nicole got back into the driver’s seat. Glen took off, the car’s alarm deafening, and headed towards the store. She and Rick waited, for about five minutes, and then they saw the red Camaro drive by, with dozens of walkers’ right behind it. Nicole then drove the car toward the loading bay and as she backed up the truck, Rick went and opened the back end door and banged on the metal. The door rose up and Andrea, Jacqui, Morales and T-Dog hopped onto the truck.

“Let’s go Nicole!” Rick yelled and Nicole slapped on the gas and the truck sped forward. Walkers began following the truck and Morales closed the truck door.

“Hot damn, that was one of the best rescues I ever been in!” Nicole slammed the steering wheel with her open hand as she sped away from the city. “Oh sweet Satan, that was awesome, too awesome!” She gave a big grin as she looked at Rick and he gave her an odd grin. Nicole didn’t even notice that Merle wasn’t with the group. Apparently the group was looking at T-Dog and he looked at them right back.

“I dropped the damn key. I was going to get him out, but I tripped and it fell down the drain.” Nicole glanced at Rick and then looked back at the road. Nobody said anything for a long time; they were already out of the city when Andrea broke the silence.

“Where did Glen go?” Nicole looked in the rear view mirror and didn’t see him.

“He’s probably out driving that nice car around.” Nicole said as she took her hoodie off quickly to drive better.

“What nice car?” Jacqui asked.

“The one that saved your asses.” Nicole replied. She threw her hoodie in between her and Rick and a large sack of pot fell out of her pocket. Her initial reaction was fear that the cop next to her was going to confiscate her weed and right a ticket. “Oh, shit. That’s not mine, officer. I was holding it for a friend, they sneaked it into my pocket, I had no idea it was there!” Her hands got sweaty on the steering wheel and she started hyperventilating. T-Dog, Morales, Andrea and Jacqui all looked toward her as Rick picked up the pot and started laughing hysterically, like he was a mad man.

“Nicole, do you honestly think I have the authority anymore to get you in trouble for this?” He continued laughing as Nicole got a look on her face that showed she didn’t appreciate being made fun of. Rick kept laughing and turned to show the group her stash. “She thought I was going to arrest her!” Everyone joined in on the laughter and Nicole got even more heated.

“Alright, my bad! I made a mistake!” She reached over and took her pot from Rick.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate that!” He laughed harder and she threw him a death glare.

“Looks like you’ve had enough for the both of us.” She told him as his hysteric laughter calmed into giggles.

“I’m sorry Nicole, I really am. I just thought it was so amusing.” He leaned his head back and looked out the window.

“It was a trip.” T-Dog added. “Girl forgets the cops can’t bust her for weed.” He chuckled getting a little laugh from the rest of the group.

“Ok! I think we got the point that Nicole is a big retard for thinking this asshole pig could still bust me because a shit load of pot fell out of my pocket!” Nicole yelled as she sped the truck up going at least 80.

“Asshole pig?” He gave a smug smile as a familiar noise came up from behind them. It was Glen in the Camaro, the alarm still blaring and Glen having the time of his life. He was whooping and hollering, enjoying the time in the fast hotrod.

“Well, it sounds like Glens having fun.” Morales said as Jacqui and Andrea chuckled. Glen sped past the truck and Nicole stepped on the gas, eager to get to the quarry Morales said they were camped at. It took them about another hour before they finally got there. Glen was already there leaning against his new car. Andrea was the first one out of the truck then Jacqui and T-Dog. Morales placed a hand on both Rick’s and Nicole’s shoulder. “Come meet our people.” He gave them a smile and got out. Nicole opened the door and saw Rick wasn’t’ moving.

“You ok?” She asked as she placed a hand on his.

“Yea, I just need a little moment to myself, if you don’t mind.” She nodded and exited the truck. She walked toward the camp were Morales was telling his family and the other survivors about how The Lone Rider and Tonto rode into the city and got them trapped, but also got them out again.

“Her name is Nicole Montez. Here she comes.” Nicole looked up and saw the two people she had been searching for. They turned around when they heard Morales mention her name. She looked right into the eyes of her brother and boyfriend. Ray and Rael were alive. She took off running as fast as she could right as Ray and Rael ran to her.

“Nicole! I can’t believe it! Nicole!” Rael yelled as he ran next to Ray.

“Rael!” She jumped into his arms, hugging him tighter than she ever hugged her brother before. She then turned and saw Ray, and she grabbed a hold of him as well. “I can’t believe it, you’re here. You’re both here. I found you, guys. I found you.” She whispered as she held onto the both of them. She then looked up and saw two people she never knew personally but only knew because of a picture. She struggled in her brother’s arms and he put her down, looking at her in confusion. She took a deep breath and yelled, “Rick!” Just as she he had guessed, he bolted out of the truck and ran towards her. He saw Lori and Carl and reacted the same way Nicole had when she saw Rael and Ray.

“Dad! It’s dad!” Carl ran from his mother’s arms into Ricks and they shared an embrace as Rick ran to Lori, holding Carl. She gave him a huge hug and kiss as tears streamed down there face.

“Nicole, I have to show you something.” Rael said as he led her to his Camaro. A door was open and there were little feet dangling from the inside. “I found him.” She looked at him then looked in the car. There in the driver’s side was Rael’s 5 year old son, Rael Romero Montez III.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rick and Nicole have found their families. Things look to be finally getting good for the survivors, but will it last?


	7. Dreams Sure Are Funny Little Things, Especially Wet Ones...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole gets to the camp and catches a glimpse of Mr. Daryl Dixon himself.

Nicole couldn’t believe that she had found Ray and Rael, and not to mention Little Rael as well. That worried Nicole. Rael didn’t lose custody of his son for no reason. She knew her brother better that anybody and even though she loved him to death, she knew that the seeds of evil had been planted in Rael’s heart the moment he lost custody when Little Rael was only five months old. 

Rael was young, wild and restless, he didn’t take the role of father seriously and it cost him. No visitation rights, no weekend visits, nothing until Little Rael was 18, when he could decide for himself he wanted to see his dad. One thing that bothered Nicole greatly was that Rachel, Little Rael’s mother, was not with them. She wasn’t among the semi-large group of survivors that had escaped Dallas. Even though she and Nicole never really cared much for one another, they still had a mutual level of respect, Nicole was Little Rael’s aunt and Rachel never denied her a chance to see her only nephew. In the short visits she would have with them, Nicole learned that Rachel was very much like her. She was a fighter, and she fought to protect what was hers. 

She should’ve been here, and that irked Nicole terribly. She looked at her brother from her spot around the small campfire, he seemed to be ok, he was rocking little Rael gently, while Rick told his story about how he felt when he first woke up in the hospital. “I was scared, I admit that. I was confused about what had happened. Then as soon as I walked out,” He turned to Nicole who was cuddled up with Ray. “I ran into Nicole. She was in the same state I was. We teamed up and from that moment on, we had each other’s back. We still have each other’s back.” He gave a small smile to Nicole and she returned it.

“That we do, Rick.” She turned and looked over at Shane; he was looking at Rick with a very unreadable expression, like he was thinking about something dirty. She chuckled to herself and felt Ray’s arms wrap around her. She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“I thought you were dead, Nicole.” Ray whispered in her ear. “When I ran to your house once shit starting getting bad, I ran into Rael. He was with Shane and Rael told me he was just at the hospital, that you weren’t breathing, and that you were dead.” He couldn’t continue, he looked away but Nicole saw the shimmer of fresh tears falling down his cheeks. 

She turned around and pulled him into a big hug, something she thought that she would never do again. He held her close, the curvature of their bodies meshing perfectly, as perfect as it ever has been. She looked toward Rael and saw he was spaced out, staring out into space, looking at nothing. She couldn’t possibly imagine what he was thinking.

~~Rael's Thoughts~~

“Rael, you’re not taking my son.” Rachel yelled over the sounds of cars honking and people shouting.

“Rachel, I’m getting my son out of the city, you can either come along or not, but either way, I’m taking him.” Rael made a move to open the back passenger door of Rachel’s red Mazda, when she got in front of him.

“Wait, Rael just can you give me a night to think about it?” He looked at her with an uncertain look then nodded.

“Yea, I can do that.” He smiled at her and took her face gently in her hands. She smiled and gave him a hug.

~~

“Rael!” Nicole yelled at her brother and he jumped, pulled from whatever he was thinking about. “I’m heading off to bed with Ray. Let me kiss, Bubba.” Rael smiled at his baby sister and she knelt down, giving her nephew a goodnight kiss. She then hugged her brother tight, still not believing that she had actually found them, both of them.

“Goodnight Nicole, I love you.” Rael gave his sister a gently squeeze.

“I love you too, Number 2.”He smiled at her, and she took Ray’s hand. He led her to his black and red tent, which they had all to themselves, and sealed them inside for the night. Nicole noticed that Ray brought some of her stuff from his house. He brought her blankets and all the extra clothes she had kept at his house, including her favorite pair of Star Wars pajama bottoms. She smiled with tears in her eyes as she went to sit down on the soft worn mattress. 

He gently threw her the pajamas and she changed quickly as Ray crawled into the bed next to her. She smelt the familiar smell of burning crack and saw Ray’s glass pipe on the floor next to the mattress. He didn’t even acknowledge it and Nicole turned to face him. She sighed, feeling a very powerful bought of drowsiness assault her. “Hey baby, where did you get the crack from?” She asked. “I didn’t think you’d find a dealer at the end of the world.”

“Do you remember my old drug dealer friend, Merle Dixon?” ‘Merle Dixon, that sounds so familiar,’ she thought as she slowly closed her weary eyes. She mumbled a sort of affirming reply. “I got it from his brother, Daryl.” A small smile came to her lips as she thought about only one thing before she fell asleep, Daryl Dixon.

~~

Nicole was lost in the woods. She personally hardly ever got lost; she had a pretty decent sense of direction although personally, she was terrified of the woods. She was walking in the dark and kept tripping over hidden roots and her face got scratched by branches that hung too low. She suddenly heard growling coming from all around her and she took off running. She ran no matter how many times she tripped, she wasn’t going to stop. The growling was just getting too close for her to slow down or stop anytime soon. She ran into something strong and tall. She looked up expecting to see Ray or even Rael but instead, looked up into eyes of Daryl Dixon. “Nicole, what the hell you think you’re doing out here?” he asked her in his cute redneck voice.

“Daryl, I don’t know why I’m here. I think I was looking for you.” She said as she reached for Daryl’s hands.

“I was looking for you, too.” He gripped her hands as well and he pulled her to him. Once she was close enough, he wrapped her arms around her in a warm embrace. She held him back, deeply inhaling his scent, which was that of weed, cigarettes and pine needles. “Nicole, I want you.” He began running his hands all over her body which sent chills down her spine. “I’ve always wanted you. I need to have you.” She was confused by this. When has he ever seen her enough to want her, they barely knew each other. Ray was the one that knew the Dixon brothers and she only knew Merle by name; she never would have guessed that the redneck she kissed to save T-Dog from getting shot was the Merle Dixon that was Ray’s drug dealer. “You wana get this party started?” He whispered in her ear, causing goose bumps to break out on her arms. 

Now she remembers how she knew Daryl, she had seen him a couple of times when Merle would send him to Ray’s in his place. Nicole would hear Daryl before she saw him on those days. Daryl was always loud and lively with Ray, but as soon as Nicole walked into the room, he would clam up and get really shy. She finally figured out why. ‘It was sexual tension he was feeling towards me.’ 

She grinned evilly and grabbed the bulge that was beginning to rise in his pants. ‘I don’t mind easing a little tension.’ He caught on to what she was offering and he took her face in his rough hands. She looked into his eyes and saw something she never thought she would see in the eyes of this badass, tough as nails, redneck drug dealer. He looked sad, scared and happy all at the same time. She was just about to say something, to question this curious look in his eyes when he crashed his lips onto hers. 

They were soft and tasted slightly of tobacco and beer. She deepened the kiss, wrapping her arms around him and all of a sudden, he had her on the ground, on a soft blue blanket that seemed to come out of nowhere. He broke the kiss, but left a little trail of them down her jaw line to a sensitive spot on her neck. She let a soft moan escape her lips and she felt Daryl smirk against her skin. Using his knee, he spread her legs, fitting himself in between them like a long lost forgotten puzzle piece. He slowly started to lower his hand into the waistband of her pajamas but stopped, looking at her. She looked back up at him, hoping that he wasn’t doing it just to tease her, as a part of some cruel joke.

“Daryl, what the fuck? Are you messing with my head?” She asked, he grinned getting his answer to an unasked question. He kissed her again, a little rougher this time as he massaged her breast with one hand and pulled her pajamas off with the other. She moaned into his mouth and he smiled as she quickly undid his pants and slid his boxers off. As she took care of that, he slowly pulled her white panties down her legs and got in between them again. She could feel him, his long shaft teasing her making her want him deep inside her. He slid in slowly and Nicole automatically wrapped her legs around his waist, running her fingers through his hair. 

He didn’t stick with the the slow pace for long and after a while, he grabbed her legs and placed them on his shoulders. He stood tall above her, assaulting her with his hot sex. She moaned louder as she felt him deep in her, bringing out something in her she had no idea was there in the first place. He moaned loudly, tilting his head back as if searching for the very meaning of life in the heavens above. Then something in her snapped, and she pushed him back. He lay out on the blanket, and she rode him in a way that made stars dance behind her closed eyes. He began to softly moan her name, and when she rode harder, he got louder. The sound of his voice, calling out her name in pleasure, made her want him that much more, and she moaned. “Daryl, Daryl, Daryl.”

“Nicole, Nicole, Nicole.” She felt his hands wander her body and she felt a heat in the pit of her stomach as Daryl put himself on top of her again. “Nicole, it’s about to happen, what do you want me to do?” He asked out of breath as he started to gradually speed up.

“I don’t want you to stop.” She whispered in his ear, and he didn’t. He fucked her hard, harder than he has ever fucked anyone before, but he also fucked her with the most love and compassion he’s ever shown for anyone in his life. She moaned his name and he moaned hers right back, he whispered into her damp hair as they came together, something that she admits she’s never been able to get out of sex with Ray. It was like Nicole's and Daryl's bodies were in perfect harmony, completely synced with one another. 

He lay down next to her, and pulled another blanket over them. She turned to look at him and saw he was already staring at her. She looked into his eyes and he looked right back. He gently brushed her cheek with his thumb and she smiled, felling like her world was perfect at this very moment. He gently kissed her lips and looked at her with a look of absolute seriousness and he softly whispered, “I love you, Nicole.”


	8. Emotions are Never a Person's Best Friend...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole wakes from her sleep and just when she thinks things are going great, they fall quickly from grace.

Nicole’s eyes opened suddenly. She blinked a couple times, adjusting to the brightness of the late morning sun. She sat herself upright and sighed, running her fingers through her long hair. “What the fuck was that?” She said softly as she held her knees to her body. She hit herself in the head, and winced. She touched her eye and noticed it had swelled up a little more. ‘Fucking Merle Dixon, stupid asshole,’ she thought to herself stretched. She then began to debate with herself, wondering if she wanted to forget the dream she had, or put it in her vault. She decided to forget about it, it couldn’t possibly mean anything, could it? ‘Don’t be dumb, Nicole. You were tired. You’ve never been that exhausted or emotionally drained, not even when Mom took off. You fell asleep with a stray thought of him in your mind, that’s the only explanation to what you dreamt of last night.’ She sighed and stood up, looking through the mesh of the tent out to where the rest of the survivors were going about their daily routines. Nicole had to admit, it was almost as if the world never ended at all. It was like a huge camping trip that strangers could sign up to take with police escorts for security and protection. Nicole chuckled to herself as she looked for her heels and jeans. Covering the reality, masking it did no good to anyone. If you go about looking at things in your own way instead of the way they really were, you might as well just put a bullet in your head. She pulled her skinnies on and did up her heels. She threw off her tank top and searched in the small box of clothes that was marked, ‘Nicole’. She smiled, recognizing Ray’s flawless script and pulled out an old faded Nirvana shirt. It was too big for her, but she enjoyed the feel of the cool fabric on her skin. She exited the tent and walked through the camp, giving friendly hellos to all she walked by. She saw Rick talking to Lori and she walked past a woman ironing. “You must be Nicole.” She looked toward the woman and nodded. “My name’s Carol, I just wanted to tell you that I washed your sweater. Sorry I couldn’t get the blood stains out, but I did the best I could. It’s not dry yet but just give it a few more minutes.” She smiled a sort of sad smile and continued ironing.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” Nicole smiled at Carol and walked to where she saw Rael. Ray was a little further away, reading a book to Bubba. She smiled but walked over to her brother, thinking about how she was going to say this.

“Well, if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty.” Rael joked as Nicole walked up to him. She flipped him off and he laughed, looking back down at the small stew he was cooking. Rael always had a knack for scavenging. Nicole remembered times when she was five years old; Rael would stay out in the backyard for days, living off the small garden their dad would tend. Nicole would also remember that she never thought of what Rael was doing could be considered as surviving, especially when Rael would run into the house, scared to death of the neighbor’s cat. However, as he got older he took longer trips out into the woods and mountains that were nestled all around the small city of Raventon. He got good at not only hunting, but gathering as well. He could tell which plants were poisonous and which plants you could eat. Nicole had no doubt in her mind that everything in Rael’s stew was foraged from the forest. However, it smelled delicious and Nicole sat next to her brother.

“Rael, I have to ask you something.” He stopped stirring and sighed, as if somehow already knowing what was on his sister’s mind. He looked at her, his hazel eyes hiding torment but not hiding annoyance. “Where’s Rachel?”

“I don’t know.” He continued stirring, not really looking at the stew in front of him. Nicole looked at her older brother, and for the first time in her life, she was afraid of him. She kept calm and kept asking about Rachel.

“How do you not know, Rael? Was she not with Bubba when you found him?” He stood up and exhaled sharply, turning toward her.

“Nicole, I …” Before he could finish, screams were heard from the forest. Nicole saw Rick take off and she bolted after him, especially when Carl and the other children began screaming. Rael ran to stay with his son and Ray took off after Nicole. She ran into the woods, pausing only to catch her axe when Ray tossed it to her. Nicole, Ray, Morales, Shane, Rick and Lori were among the group that ran into the forest. Once they got to the tin cans, Jacqui ran up to them with Carl and Sophia. Carol and Lori stayed with them as Rick, Morales, Dale, Jim, Shane, Ray and Nicole ran a little farther into the woods. They came across a walker, ripping the throat out of a dead deer which had arrows sticking out of different parts of its body. Rick turned around and shushed the group and Nicole walked up to him, positioning herself on his right side. She held her axe up as the assault group slowly surrounded the walker. It looked up from its breakfast, slowing standing up. It looked right Nicole and she was just about to swing her axe into its head, when Rick starting beating it with the stick he had. The whole group then started beating the walker with their weapons, until Dale hit it on a soft spot on its neck and its head popped right off. Nicole rested her axe on her shoulders and she felt Ray come up from behind her.

“This could be bad.” Dale said as he walked over to where Rick was standing. “The walkers must be moving from Dallas into the forest.”

“They’re food supply is getting low.” Jim said. Some rustling leaves caused everyone to raise their weapons again. Shane was the closest and he held his huge shotgun in the direction the rustling was coming from. The sound got closer and Ray moved protectively in front of Nicole, when all of a sudden Daryl Dixon walked into view.

“What the hell’s going on here?” He asked, and Nicole gasped. She remembered a part of her dream, where Daryl had asked her what the hell was she doing.

“This walker found its way up here. We just took it out.” Ray said, as he walked to his drug dealer.

“The son of a bitch chomped on my deer. You know long I’ve been tracking this damn thing?” He asked Ray as he walked up to him. The group started to slowly disperse and Nicole was just about to leave as well, when her eyes met Daryl’s. She quickly looked down at the walker’s head, whose eyes suddenly popped open. It began squirming and chomping and Nicole brought her axe down on it, a little more forceful than she anticipated. Ray and Daryl looked in her direction and without looking at either of them; she turned around and headed back to camp.

 

Rick caught her right when she walked into camp, and asked her what they were going to tell Daryl.

“We left his brother handcuffed to that roof. This is on us, not T-Dog, but us.” He looked at her and she sighed. “I’ll tell him, I was the one who handcuffed him.”

“Yea, but I was the one who put him in the position to get handcuffed in the first place.” She whispered as Ray and Daryl came out of the woods, Daryl walking toward the camp and Ray walking toward his tent. “I’ll tell him.” She walked over to where Daryl had started yelling his brother’s name, going on about cooking up the squirrels he had caught since the deer ended up getting eaten by something else.

“Hey Daryl?” Rick called out. Daryl turned around and looked at Rick. “I need to talk to you.” He walked over to where Rick and Nicole were, keeping his eyes on Rick.

“About what, I need to get these squirrels skinned.” He glanced over at Nicole, and she didn’t let her gaze waiver, she was going to tell him about what happened to his brother, how it was her that did it.

“Merle.” She said softly. His eyes got soft and he looked back up at Rick.

“He’s dead, huh?” Nicole looked up at Rick, who looked down at her.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Rick said, as people started to slowly gather around what was taking place.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” He yelled and T-Dog got a little closer in case a fight broke out.

“Daryl, look I know how this is going to sound but it’s not as bad as it seems.” T-Dog came up from behind Daryl and he turned to look at him. “Merle is handcuffed to the roof of a department store in Dallas. I had the key to get him out, but I dropped it in the drain when I went to unlock him.” Daryl’s expression was unreadable, and Nicole stepped toward T-Dog.

“Look Daryl, your brother almost killed T-Dog, he was out of control.” Rick tried to explain.

“Not to mention, coked out of his mind.” Nicole added. “Look, it’s not all their fault. I seduced Merle.” The rest of the group looked at Nicole like she was nuts. “I had to do something or he would’ve killed T-Dog. I kissed him and sat him down, giving him the impression that we were going to have sex. While he was distracted, I took my gun out and hit him with it, giving Rick the chance he needed to handcuff him. He didn’t like it and gave me this.” Nicole pointed to her swollen eye. Daryl just stood there for the longest time before he charged at T-Dog. In a flash Nicole was in between Daryl and T-Dog, with a gun to Daryl’s chest. She was breathing hard, scared to death. She didn’t like all this fighting, Daryl didn’t seem to understand the necessity of handcuffing his brother up there, he was a threat and he would’ve gotten them all killed. She would’ve understood if her brother had to be handcuffed to a roof, if there was a chance that they could go get him. Merle had that chance and Daryl wasn’t seeing logic in that. So Nicole stood there, with her gun pointed at his heart as T-Dog continued to try to explain the situation.

“Look, I didn’t leave him there to get massacred by walkers, I stopped long enough to chain the door shut. The geeks that I saw running into that store aren’t enough to get to him.” T-Dog put his hand on Nicole’s shoulder as he took a step forward. “What I’m trying to say is that your brother’s alive and still on the roof of that store, handcuffed to that pipe.” Daryl wiped tears from his cheeks and turned back to Rick.

“You all go to hell! You hear me?” He turned back to T-Dog and Nicole stood her ground again. He then looked right into her eyes. “You can for first for all a care!” He yelled into her face and turned around. She looked at him as he walked away and tried not take his harsh words to heart. T-Dog gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and she nodded, putting her gun back in the waistband of her jeans. “Where is he, pig? I’m going to go get him, so tell me.”

“I’ll show you.” Nicole said as she marched toward Daryl and Rick. Daryl turned around and rolled his eyes.

“I thought I told you to go to hell.” Nicole was getting really tired of his attitude.

“We didn’t do that to Merle for just any fucking reason Daryl. He would’ve gotten us all killed, and I’m sorry, I get the whole big brother thing, I have one of those. I just wish you wouldn’t be so fucking stupid!” He was shocked by her screaming, the whole group was, but she wasn’t stopping anytime soon. “If I were in your fucking position, I wouldn’t try to fucking hurt the person who for all you know saved your brother’s worthless life! If it was my brother, I would understand the need to put him in a time out, I would also be grateful for the fact that he’s still alive! You though, are so fucking stupid and you can’t admit! You know what, fuck Merle and fuck you! Have a nice trip going to save your fucking brother, I hope neither of you ever come back!” She walked past him and shoved her shoulder into his, causing him to stumble a bit. She walked past Rick who put her hand on her shoulder but in her angered state, she shrugged it off, grabbing her axe as she passed by it. ‘Why is he so stupid?’ she though as she walked to the outskirts of the camp. ‘His brother’s alive, I offer to show him where he’s at, and he tells me to go to hell.’ She gripped her axe and started swinging at a dead tree. She swung over and over again, not going unnoticed by the group; even though she could’ve sworn she was hidden from them. “Stupid…piece…of…fucking…shit!” She yelled in between swings. “Doesn’t…know…how…to…be…fucking…grateful! Fuck…him…and…his…brother!” She finally calmed down and stopped swinging, exhaling softly. She shook her shoulders out and turned around, startled to see the entire camp looking at her. She looked down at the ground then looked up at Daryl. He smirked at her and turned away. She growled and walked into the woods, wanting to escape from the stares of uncertainty that even her partner was giving her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daryl and Nicole are fighting and Rick just may be questioning her stability. Is he right to question?


	9. Memories are What Keep Us Sane, They Can Also Drive us Insane...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insults are thrown and feelings are hurt, and Nicole's and Daryl's fate start to intertwine with one another. Where it will lead them, no one knows for sure.

Once Daryl walked away from the camp, all his bottled up emotions threatened to leak out of him. His anger, hate and sorrow were the strongest, but there was something else, something he wasn’t used to. Nicole was back, and the moment he saw her he felt a joy radiate in him. He was sure she was dead, walker food at least. When he and Merle saw that Ray was here at camp it made Merle extremely happy and Daryl too, but for a different reason. Ray was not only one of Merle’s best customers, he was also Merle’s coke connect. Merle could get his fix of coke and Ray could get his pinch of crack. It was a win-win situation. All Daryl thought, however, was that if Ray was here Nicole had to be here also? The first night in camp, Merle and Ray attended to some business, while Daryl went looking for a sign, any sign that Nicole had gotten out of the city. It wasn’t that he loved her, Daryl Dixon didn’t believe in love. He just felt that she needed someone to look after her; she was always getting into the worst sorts of trouble. He would remember hearing about how someone came really close to getting caught by Rick, Shane and the rest of the Raventon police force. Then her and Ray would stop by Merle’s to pick up some yellow and Ray would be so hopped up, bragging that they had, once again, duped the cops. He remembered a conversation that stuck with him more than anything, it was the first time he and Nicole had ever spoken, that night that they had a close call with the police.

“So, what the hell happened?” Daryl asked nervously, he had never spoken to her before and he was unsure of if she would even acknowledge redneck trash like him. She had no trouble talking to him, none at all.

“Man, you should’ve been there! It was awesome! It all started out at Ray’s house. He had just done the last of his crack and we were going to head over here to pick up some more. Well, I wanted to have a little fun, so I decided to make an everyday trip fucking amazing!” She continued talking about how she loaded her favorite paint ball gun, stole a car, took the license plates off and drove by the police station. She paused for a minute and dug around in her bag. She pulled out a huge sack of pot and some rolling papers. She turned to Daryl and he looked at her. “Would you prefer a blunt or a joint? I also have my pipe and bong if you would rather use one of those?” He let his lip curl up as he smiled at her. He personally never cared much for smoking weed, he was strictly coke, ice and shrouds, but Nicole Montez was looking at him, her light brown eyes sparkling with excitement and he couldn’t resist.

“What does your bong look like?” He asked, she grinned and pulled it out of her bag. It was a foot high, clear glass bong with her name written on it in purple sharpie, along with a few other names. “That’s pretty nice.” She nodded and pulled a grinder out of her bag. “God damn, that bag’s like never ending.” He commented. She laughed, like clear bells, as she loaded the grinder.

“It’s my boom-boom bag.” She said, as Daryl grabbed her bong, examining it closely, while she grinded up her pot.

“Boom-boom bag?” He asked as with a smirk as he gave the bong back so she could load it.

“Yea, I’m staying the night at Ray’s so I came prepared.” She winked at him and he smiled as she pulled a black Bic lighter from her pocket. He watched her as she sparked the bong, how her shoulders rose as she breathed in, how she closed one eye as she hit it and how her lips looked as she exhaled the smoke. She handed it to him and he took it, mimicking what she had just done. Once he handed it back to her, she pulled out a purple sharpie. “Here, you hit it, now you have to sign it.” She handed the sharpie and bong back to Daryl and he smiled, focusing as hard as he ever has to make sure he wrote his name perfectly. He wrote it on the bulb of the bong, pretty big and she admired it once he handed it back. “You’re a part of the club now Daryl Dixon.” He smiled at her and Ray came out of the back room.

“Daryl, get your ass over here!” Merle called from the back room.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you around. Thanks for the toke Nicole, you guys be careful.” Nicole and Ray waved at Daryl, and once they were outside he closed the door and locked it.

Once he found Rael that first night, he was positive Nicole was here too. However, that was not what had happened.

“Rael! Hey man, I thought that was you.” He said as he walked up to Rael.

“Daryl D. What’s up, how you’ve been?”

“No worse for the ware just got here with Merle.” He tried not to make it obvious that he was searching for some sign of Nicole. “He’s doing a little business with Ray.” Rael nodded and turned back into the tent he was standing in front of. Daryl didn’t know if he wanted him to follow him, but he did anyways.  
“Hey, Rael, where’s Nicole?” Rael sat on the single cot, next to a small sleeping boy and held his face in his hands. “Rael?”

“She’s dead, Daryl.” He softly started crying and Daryl just looked at him, unsure of what to do or how that even made him feel. “You heard about her accident right?” He nodded and Rael continued. “Well, I went to the hospital to get her out of there, to save her. I tried to save her man, I swear I tried!” He yelled softly, careful not to wake the small boy. “She wasn’t breathing, her heart wasn’t beating and, I left her there.” He started bawling and Daryl was just about to comfort him, something he wasn’t sure on how to do, when he heard Merle calling him. Daryl turned around and left the camp, feeling as if a part of him died as well.

He was brought back to the present, brought back to the realization that Nicole was alive and he had told her to go to hell. He felt bad, no terrible, for that and he turned around and walked right into Rick Grimes. “What the hell do you want?” Daryl asked as he walked past him.

“I want you to apologize to Nicole.” Rick said as he followed Daryl back to the camp. “She wanted to help you go find your brother and you had no right to treat her like that.”

“No right? I had every right! She and you left my brother up there on the roof!” He yelled.

“She had no choice! We didn’t have any choice! She did what she did to save the life of someone else. He would’ve gotten us all killed! You know what, I’m done discussing this. If you want help in saving your son of a bitch brother, you know where to find us.” He walked back into camp, leaving Daryl to ponder his words.

Nicole sat on a dead log deep in the woods, in a pretty clearing. She felt angry still and hurt at what had happened this morning. She understood Daryl’s anger but at least his brother was alive. That had to count for something, right? She sighed and through a rock far into the forest.

“Ow, what the hell?” She heard a familiar voice and she stood up. Daryl walked out of the woods into her clearing, holding a spot on his head.

“Oh gosh, Daryl I’m sorry. I didn’t do that on purpose, I swear!” She stood up quickly and he walked to her.

“It’s alright; I’m the one who should be sorry.” He looked down at the ground. “I didn’t mean it when I said you should go to hell. I was angry.” He looked at her and whispered, “I’m sorry.” He turned back around and walked out of the clearing.

“Hey, Daryl!” Nicole called after him and he stopped, letting her catch up. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean it when I said that I hope you don’t come back.” She sighed and looked back up at him. “Do you want to go get your brother?” He nodded at her and she nodded back, feeling the need to run. So she did, she ran away from Daryl back to hers and Rays tent. She then took off to look for Rick; she wasn’t going back into the city by herself. She was going to get Rick to come with her. She found him next to Glen’s Camaro. “Hey Rick, Daryl wants to go looking for Merle. I’m going to help him and I want you to come with me.” Lori walked up from behind Nicole and heard what she asked.

“You want Rick to go where?” She asked. Nicole turned around and looked into the eyes of Rick’s wife.

“I’m going back to the city, Lori. I told Daryl I would help him go get his brother. I want Rick to go with me. I have his back and he has mine, I will look out for him, I promise you that.” Lori still wasn’t convinced, and she voiced it.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a good idea, Nicole. It’s not that I don’t think you will watch out for him, but I just got him back, we just got him back and I do not like the idea of him leaving again.”

“Lori, I need to go with her.” Rick said as he grabbed onto his wife. She decided to leave them be, and went to go get ready for the trip, in case it ended up being just her and Daryl. She walked slowly to her tent, and walked in, grabbing her backpack and getting supplies. Ray walked into the tent and saw what she was doing.

“So it’s true?” She turned around and saw him looking at her with an unreadable expression. “You’re leaving?”

“Ray, it’s my fault he’s up there. I told Daryl I would help him and I am.” He got closer to her and she could tell he was angry.

“I heard about that, about how you kissed him.” She turned to face him.

“Ray, it’s not what you think! He was going to kill someone!”

“So what?!” He yelled, scaring her a little bit. “You’ve killed someone, remember? Have you forgotten?” She closed her eyes that part of her past was supposed to be long lost and forgotten. He knew better than to bring it up.

“Ray, that was different, and how dare you bring it up, you swore you would never bring it up again!” She yelled back.

“You know what Nicole?” He ran his finger s though his hair and sighed. “Go, just go.” He walked out of the tent and she watched him leave, feeling tears stinging her eyes. She sat on the bed and cried. She cried loud and for a while, and didn’t notice Rick walk into her tent. She looked up, seeing her partner dressed in his police uniform. She smiled, knowing that he had convinced his wife to let him come. Behind him were T-Dog, Glen and Daryl all ready for the mission. She stood up and smiled, hugging her partner.

“I need to change.” She said and Rick led the group out and Daryl was the last to leave. He looked at her and before she could say anything, he exited the tent sealing it behind him. She sighed and went digging in the box again, looking for a shirt. She found her favorite black corset top. She smiled and took her Nirvana shirt off, throwing it on the cot and putting her other one on. She then walked out and led the mission group to the cube van, to go and get back Merle Dixon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole finds herself on a quest to save Merle Dixon from the roof in Atlanta. her brother and boyfriend seem to wish she wasn't.


	10. Watching As You're Ripped From Me, Rips My Heart Out of My Chest...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting to Atlanta was easy enough for Rick, Glen, Daryl, T-Dog and Nicole but will it be as easy to get out?

Before Nicole could get into the van, Rael came running up to her. “Nicole, what the fuck are you doing?!” He yelled ignoring the concerned glances Rick and the others (minus Daryl) were giving him. “You’re honestly leaving just to go save that asshole Dixon?”

“Rael, how can you even talk that way about him? He was your friend remember?”

“No, he was never my friend! I never trusted that asshole or his fucking brother! They’re nothing but fucking crack heads that deserve to get eaten by walkers!” Daryl began walking toward the siblings and hopped off the ground to stare Rael in the face.

“You wanna repeat that last line, bro?” Daryl got really close to Rael, but he didn’t back down.

“Fuck you and your brother, Daryl Dixon! You’re going to get my little sister killed and I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna stand by here and let that happen! I just got her back!” Shane stepped in between them at just the right moment. Daryl looked like he was ready to charge, and Rael looked just the same way.

“Take it easy, boys. We don’t need any of this, alright?” He turned to face Rael. “Look son, I know we haven’t exactly gotten together on the best of terms in the past.”

“That’s the understatement of the year.” Rael said sarcastically as he crossed his arms.

“But, Rick is a good man and he’s had your sisters back this whole time. It’s going to take a lot more than the Dixon brothers and a city full of walkers to take that pair down.” Daryl scoffed at this and hopped onto the truck, positioning himself behind the passenger seat. “I mean, Nicole already looks like she could be eating nails for breakfast.” Rael turned to look at his sister and Shane winked at her in a very gross way. He then motioned to Rick, who hopped off the truck to talk to him. Shane looked at Nicole one more time and she made a severely disgusted face.

“Gag!” She yelled as she hopped onto the truck. She looked down at her big brother, who was looking down at the ground in a way Nicole knew all too well; he was pissed and he was also about to cry. Nicole bent down and she playfully ruffled his hair. He slapped her hand away, quite roughly and looked up at her with anger and tears in his eyes. He then took off running into the woods not even looking back when Bubba called out to him. Nicole hopped off the truck and ran to scoop Bubba up in her arms. “Hey there, big man. What are you up to, huh?” He giggled playfully and looked at her.

“Nothing.” He replied sounding awfully suspicious. She gave him a huge bombardment of kisses on both of his soft cheeks as she tickled him, savoring the sound of his sweet laughter.

“Oh, really? Nothing, huh?” She continued assaulting him with love, cursing Daryl for honking that damn horn in a rush to take off. “Ok Bubba, I’m going to go on a little trip and you’re going to need to stay with Uncle Ray for a little while, ok?” Tears suddenly started forming in his hazel eyes and she put him down. He grabbed a hold of her heel, suddenly stronger than any normal five year old, and started bawling his eyes out. It took all the self control she had, and more, to keep from crying along with her nephew. Sophia ran up to Bubba and she gently took his hand.

“Hey, don’t worry about your aunt, Rael. She’s going to be ok. Shh, shh, don’t cry.” She soothed Little Rael and his tears slowly stopped. “You want to play with me and Carl? We’re going down to the water to splash and swim. We can have all sorts of fun!” Thank goodness for the attention span of five year olds. Nicole made a mental note to bring Sophia a thank you gift from the city. Bubba smiled at Sophia and the pair took off running. Nicole whispered a silent ‘thank you’ to the wind. She took off running to the truck and hopped in. She looked over at Ray, who gave her the ugliest look she had ever seen him give anybody, and she pulled the door closed.

She sat in the corner of the cube van, not speaking to anybody. She thought about Bubba, Rael and Ray. She wondered if she made the right choice in coming on this expedition. She needed to calm down; she needed to get her head in the game. So she pulled a foot tall glass bong with her name written on it, out of her bag and placed it in between her legs. She pulled out the large sack of pot Officer Dickhead busted her balls about, and began to load the bong. She sparked it up, inhaling the sweet fumes and exhaling all the bullshit. T-Dog and Daryl, who were sitting in the back with her, turned to stare at her. Then Glen and Rick, who were sitting in the front, looked at her as well. She didn’t know they were looking, she didn’t really care. All she wanted was the pain in her heart to go away.

“Nicole?” She looked up; Daryl and T-Dog were around her now. She hit the bong again and blew the smoke in their face.

“What?”

“Can I have a hit?” T-Dog asked, and Nicole handed the bong to him. That’s when Daryl caught sight of his name, written in purple on the bulb of the bong.

“Hey!” He called out, causing all eyes to turn to him. This caused him to get a little flush in his cheeks and Nicole smiled, thinking he was going to point out that it was the bong they used when they first spoke to each other, that night that seemed so long ago.

“What? What happened?” Glen asked from the driver’s side. Daryl didn’t want something so personal and private to be shared with a group of people he didn’t really like, or thought he didn’t like. He thought of what Merle would say and what his big brother would do in a situation like this. That brought the mean out of him and he expressed it.

“You shouldn’t be smoking that shit in here, Nicole! What the hell are you trying to do, get us killed by clouding our brains with your filth?” He hit the bong out of T-Dog’s hands and it fell to the floor of the truck, getting a huge and ugly crack right where he had signed his name. He crawled back to his spot behind the passenger seat with his back to Nicole and T-Dog.

Nicole didn’t even say anything, she didn’t scream or cuss. She picked the bong up, loaded it with fresh weed and sparked it again. She wasn’t going to let the asshole, commonly known as Daryl Dixon, get to her. She handed the bong to T-Dog and as he hit it, she pulled out a purple sharpie.

“Here, you hit it, so you get to sign it.” She flashed a friendly smile, and he smiled back as he took the sharpie from her.

“I don’t know if I told you this, but thank you for saving my life. I know kissing that crazy redneck had to be hard.” She laughed a little bit and nodded to him and he returned to work on the badass graffiti art he did of his name on the neck of the bong. “Finished, homegirl.” She took the bong from him and she admired his work.

“Wow T-Dog, that’s amazing!” Nicole hit the bong one more time before clearing the ash out of the bowl and returning the bong to her bag. Her mind was already more at ease and her pain now a dull throb. She was feeling a lot better than she did when they left camp and she smiled as Glen brought the van to a stop.

“This is where we get off. Get it? Get off?” He said in an attempt to be funny. It only got halfhearted smiles from the group, (minus Daryl) and Glen didn’t try to be funny again. Suddenly, Rick got an epiphany and he grabbed onto Nicole’s arm.

“Ow, Rick what the fuck, another imaginary helicopter?”

“Our guns!” Nicole’s eyes got wide as she realized what he was talking about. “And I didn’t imagine that helicopter for the last time.” Nicole just rolled her eyes.

“What guns?” T-Dog asked as Daryl impatiently wandered ahead.

“A bag of guns I dropped when Nicole and I first got into the city! There's a lot of guns and ammo in that bag. We need to go get it.”

“Hold up, we’re here for Merle, not your pussy pea shooters!” Daryl yelled.

“Glen, which is closer?” Nicole asked, keeping her distance from Daryl.

“Merle, we can get the guns on the way back. Let’s go!” They group took off running in the direction of the department store (ignoring the stream of curses and complaints coming from Daryl), ending up right smack in the middle of walker city.  
The fact that they were now surrounded by walkers didn’t stop or hinder them in the slightest. They made it through unnoticed, thanks to the quiet of Daryl’s crossbow and Nicole’s axe and soon they were at the department store. They went in quietly, but once they were in, armed with Dale’s bolt cutters, they ran up all the way to the roof of the department store. Daryl ran ahead of everybody and once the group got to the door, T-Dog cut the padlock. Nicole pulled the chain and Daryl kicked open the door.

“Merle! Merle!” Only Merle wasn’t there. He had escaped in the most gruesome of ways. He had managed to get a hold of Dale’s hacksaw and cut his own hand off. Daryl screamed and cried, and Nicole shook her head. She couldn’t believe that a crazy redneck could actually cut off his hand with a hacksaw. Then again, the dead had risen to devour anything with warm flesh on its bones, so the idea that Merle had cut off his hand to escape wasn’t as hard to believe as she had initially thought.  
Daryl suddenly and swiftly brought his loaded crossbow to T-Dog’s head. Just as quick, Rick brought his gun to Daryl’s head and Nicole brought hers to his heart.

“If you don’t think I’d shoot you Daryl, go ahead and fire.” Nicole said in a voice that even freaked her out, but it worked and Daryl slowly lowered his crossbow. He walked past T-Dog and bumped his shoulder on the way out. The group slowly followed Daryl. T-Dog and Nicole where in the center, talking about nothing and Rick and Glen in the back working on a way to get that bag of guns, and they finally had a plan.

“I don’t know about this.” T-Dog said once they had stopped to hear what was going down.

“Me either, Glen. It sounds really risky.” Nicole said as she paced the floor.

“Look, it’s a very easy plan. Trust me on this, alright.” They group agreed, really having no other choice.  
Glen took Nicole and Daryl to cover him in one alley as he went to get the bag of guns. Rick and T-Dog were in a different alley up the street, just in case he couldn’t get back to Daryl and Nicole.  
Daryl sat with his back against the dumpster and Nicole sat on the other side.

“I’ll be right back.” She told Daryl.

“Where the hell are you going?” He asked, standing up from his spot.

“I have to go to the bathroom, fucker.” She said as she walked off. She came to a little secluded area, out of Daryl’s view. She was just about to drop her drawers when all of a sudden; a young Mexican boy around the age of nineteen came out from around the corner. She gasped as he looked at her with a hungry look in his eyes.

“Ohh, sexy mamacita, you look really good. Just what me and the homeboys were looking for, fresh pussy” He reached for her before she could grab her axe. She was just about to scream until he covered her mouth roughly. He spoke to her in an ironically smooth and sweet voice, which would’ve made what he said sound very nice, if he wasn’t threatening her. “Don’t do that, ma. I don’t want to have to bruise your pretty face more than it already is.” She struggled against his grip as hard as she could until his hand slipped from her mouth and she chomped down on it, enabling her to get out a good scream.

“Daryl!” A fist came out of nowhere and collided with her jaw. She fell to the floor and two more Mexicans came out of their hiding place and started wrapping duct tape around her body, while the one she bit got his jollies out by kicking her in the back and legs while she was down. That didn’t stop her from using the greatest weapon at her disposal; her voice. “Daryl, help me! Help me, please! Daryl!” She continued screaming and saw Daryl running as if all Hell was at his heels. He kicked one of the men in the face and Rick, T-Dog and Glen grabbed a hold of the first one that had gotten the jump on her, before he could hurt her anymore. In all the commotion the third man pulled out a long knife and held it to Nicole’s throat, using her as a shield. The man that Daryl kicked ran from them and jumped into a seemingly nonworking car. He started it and the man holding Nicole walked backwards to the car. Nicole looked into Daryl’s eyes and she let her tears fall freely as these strange men took her away to an unknown place and her unknown fate. At those moments when Nicole got shoved into that car, the moment he lost sight of her beautiful brown eyes, Daryl regretted everything he did to Nicole that day. He had let her down; he didn't even tell her how happy he was to see that she wasn't dead, to see that she was alive. He had lost her again and that pained him more than anything, and it was in that very moment, as the car sped away with walkers chasing after it, that he realized he had loved Nicole all this time, and she had to get stolen away from him for Daryl to finally see the truth. He was going to get her back. If she could make Daryl Dixon believe in a thing called love, she was worth saving, even if his own life was on the line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole has been kidnapped by unknown men and Daryl couldn't save her. What will he be willing to do, and willing to admit, just to get her back?


	11. This Small World Seemed to Shrink Even More...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and Daryl have alot to think about and they may not have enough time to think about it all.

Nicole sat in the back of that car, blindfolded with tape covering her mouth. She could hear the voices of her captors, they were discussing how fucked up it was leaving the other man, whose name was Miguel, behind. “We shouldn’t have done that, we should’ve fought!”

“You know G had a mission for us. He shouldn’t have grabbed the bitch. We were there to get those guns and scavenge supplies. It’s his own damn fault.”

“Oye, Felipe, she looks good, no?” She gulped in fear, hoping that they wouldn’t try anything, praying that they would leave her alone. She pushed herself as far into the itchy seat as she could.

“Yea, she does. She looks familiar though. I have the strangest feeling I’ve seen her somewhere.”

“Well, let’s just get back to the hideout. Man, that stupid redneck better hope I don’t see him again. I’ll kill him for fucking up my grill.” Daryl. Nicole thought about what he was doing right now. Maybe he wasn’t going to help the others look for her; maybe they weren’t going to look for her at all. Daryl would be the last person she expects to see again, she has a feeling that he was going to go off, look for his brother and leave her to the disgusting fate that was soon awaiting her. She thought about Ray and if he would be happy that she was gone, that she didn’t come back. She also thought about Rael and Bubba, and who would take care of Bubba when Rael abandons him to host his pity party of one. ‘Carol probably would like to, but I’ve heard of what her husband was like so I can’t count on her. There is Amy as well. She’s good with kids; she will be the perfect person to take care of Little Rael.” The car slowly came to a stop and Nicole started crying. She let her tears fall and soak her blindfold. It still wasn’t enough to loosen it and the unknown vatos pulled her from the car, feeling her up whenever they got the chance, ignoring her muffled protests.

“Hey, G! We’re back and we brought something good.” The unknown man called out. Nicole heard some huge metal doors opening and it scared her death, causing her to struggle more, not caring if her attempts were futile. She fought and kicked, causing someone to pull her hair and drop her to her knees.

“What is this?” A different voice asked as it got closer to her.

“We didn’t find the guns, but Miguel stumbled upon something a little better.” Felipe said and she cried harder as someone lifted her up and grabbed her breast roughly. All of a sudden, a gunshot went off and Nicole saw flashes and glimpses of only one person; Daryl Dixon. She saw him kissing her, holding onto her looking into her eyes with love and not hate. She heard absolutely nothing as she laid on the ground, thinking about what just happened. She felt someone remove her blindfold and she kicked out and screamed despite the tape, scared of what was going to happen to her now. When the blindfold came off and the temporary blindness faded, she looked into the face of someone she never expected to see again.  
~~  
Daryl closed off the fence to prevent the walkers from getting at them. He then turned his undivided attention to the man that caused Nicole’s kidnapping. “You fucking little prick, where did they go?!” Daryl reached across T-Dog and grabbed at the man, who tried to run off but was grabbed by Rick and Glen. “Where did they take Nicole?! Where?!”

“Fuck you!” He yelled, and Rick gave his shaved head a hard smack.

“You better answer him! You’re men took our friend and we need to get her back! She has people who count on her, people who need her…”

“People who love her, you stupid fuck!” Daryl yelled out, getting a sideways glance from Rick.

“Yea, she has a boyfriend, a brother and a 5 year old nephew!” Glen yelled, giving the kid a smack of his own. Daryl had forgotten about Ray. He was in love with Nicole and she was in love with him.

“Yea,” Daryl managed to say. “You better tell us where they went!”

“Maybe we can just talk to them, try to work something out. Trade you for our friend, who by the way, I see you tried to rape!” He scoffed and looked at Rick.

“There’s no laws, no rules. She was open game, so yea; I decided to try to fuck the bitch!” Rick held his tongue as he knelt down next to the man.

“What’s your name?” He asked, trying to get on this guy’s good side.

“Miguel. Look, I’ll take you to the hideout, but G’s going to want to get what we came to the city for in the first place.” He said as he stood up, warily eying Daryl and his crossbow.

“What was the reason?” Glen asked.

“This big bag of guns that my cousin found in the street, it was why G sent us out here.” Rick knew what bag Miguel was talking about. He was talking about the bag of guns that rightfully belonged to him and Nicole. The man known as ‘G’ might not give Nicole back unless Rick gave him the guns. This was going to be a real dilemma.

“Well, let’s go talk to him; see if we can work something out.” Rick pulled Miguel to his feet and T-Dog grabbed a hold of him, to make sure he didn’t run off. “Lead us to G.”  
~~  
Rael sat at the edge of the water, watching Bubba splash and laugh at the little fish that swam up to him. “Did you see that, Daddy? Did you see the little baby fishies?” He yelled up, getting laughs from Carl and Sophia who were splashing along with him.

“Yea, big man, I saw them.” He turned to Ray who was smoking a cigarette a few feet away. “Hey Ray, watch the boy, I’ll be right back.” Ray nodded and Rael took off up the quarry, heading into the woods. He thought about Nicole and if she was still alive. ‘I shouldn’t have been such a dick to her,’ he thought as he walked farther into the woods. Being this deep in the green, lush, dense forest reminded him of that night that he lured Rachel away from Little Rael, because she had decided not to give her son up.  
~~Rael’s Flashback~~  
“Look I’m sorry, Rael but I can’t let you take Bubba. I’m on my way to my parent’s house. It’s safe there, the safest place for me and my son. I don’t know where you plan on going, but I’m not going to risk the life of Rael, do I make myself clear?” Rael listened to Rachel talk, scheming and thinking of a plan because he already decided he wasn’t going to leave without his only son.

“Yea, I understand Rachel. Can we take a walk? I want to hear about what’s been going on before I take off.” She smiled at Rael and she took off walking into the woods, and Rael followed her, gripping onto the pocket knife that was in his back pocket.

“So, Bubba’s been doing really well in school. He’s one of the smartest in his class and he was going to get a reward at the end of the year.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. It’s safe to say he has your brains.” Rachel blushed at his complement, and they walked deeper into the woods, farther than the average shouting distance. Rachel continued talking and Rael finally decided this was the perfect spot. He got behind Rachel and threw her down on the ground.

“Rael! What are you doing?!” He stood over her and kicked her every time she tried to get back up. “Rael, stop it please!” He pulled his pocket knife out and her eyes grew wide with fear. She tried screaming but Rael punched her in her throat, killing her chances of calling for help. She coughed and gasped trying to get her breath back and Rael knelt down next to her, looking right in her eyes.

“This is for taking Little Rael from me, this is for all the shit you put me through since the moment he was born. I’m taking my son back and we’re going to survive without you.” He raised the knife and Rachel let out an extremely hoarse scream as he brought it down. He punctured her lungs, causing blood to spurt from her mouth. He brought it down over and over again, all over her torso, well over 50 times. Once he wore himself out he looked down at Rachel’s body and for some unknown reason, he began to laugh. He laughed hysterically and he stood up, grinning all the way back to the road his Camaro and Rachel’s Mazda was at. Once he got there, he pulled Little Rael from his car seat and put him in the front seat of his Camaro. He then got in and drove to where he said he would meet Ray and Shane, a few miles away.  
~~  
Rael shook his head as he made it to the edge of the forest. He walked back down to the quarry and saw a commotion going on where the girls were washing clothes. One of their husbands was yelling and pulling his wife away. All of a sudden he saw him slap her and he ran the rest of the way down. He saw Shane grab him and start beating the shit out of him. Rael then started kicking him over and over. Shane punched and Rael kicked, beating the man pretty bad. Shane stopped and said something to the man, but Rael couldn’t hear what he said, he was too pumped, too much adrenaline was pumping through him and he looked up and saw Bubba, looking at him with an unknown look. He then wiped his face and took off once again into the woods, to the place where he felt at home and most comfortable.  
~~  
Nicole sat at the small table with a cup of hot chocolate and pan dulce (sweet bread) in front of her. She felt like she was in the twilight zone. One minute, she’s imagining terrible things happening to her and the next she’s sitting at a table across from her cousin, Guillermo. She tore a piece of her bread and dipped it in her hot chocolate, wondering what to say to the man she hasn’t seen in years. “How’s your dad?” He asked.

“He’s dead.” She answered. He looked down at his own hot chocolate, thinking of what he could possibly say to his cousin.

“Rael?” He asked.

“He’s alive, back at the place we’re camped at.”

“I’m sorry about my men and what they did. I told them to just go and get that bag of guns, and to not make any side trips.” He sipped his chocolate and she munched her bread.

“Well, it was that one little punk. He beat the shit out of me.” He reached across the small table and grabbed her hand.

“I’m so sorry, that’s why I shot that one puto who was grabbing you. Once I saw it was you, I wasn’t going to let them do my familia like that.” She smiled and nodded her thanks. All of a sudden, one of Guillermo’s men whistled, signaling him that someone was coming. They both got up from the table and took off. Nicole went back however, to get her chocolate and pan dulce. She hasn’t had her grandma’s hot chocolate and homemade pan dulce in a long ass time, and there wasn’t no telling when she would have it again. She then took off after her cousin and ran to the main doors. What she saw she couldn’t believe; Rick, Glen, T-Dog and Daryl were leading the same asshole that fucked her up and caused her to get caught in the first place. A lookout from up top yelled down in Spanish if he had the order to take them all out and save the man, whose name was Miguel.

“No!” Nicole yelled and she ran to meet them, being careful not to spill her hot chocolate. She got to her group of friends and smiled at them, taking a bite out of her bread. “Sup guys, want some?” She offered her bread to them and the group just stared at her. Miguel scoffed and hit her bread into the dirt.

“You stupid bitch, I’m surprised G didn’t fuck your shit up!” Nicole smirked at him as G came from behind her and pulled Miguel to the side. “Yo, G, what do you think of her man? Did I deliver or...”  
~BANG~  
Guillermo shot Miguel in the head and everyone but Nicole jumped back. He then turned to face her and he nodded at her.

“Thanks cousin.” She said. He then turned to look at her friends.

“You must care about my little prima Nicole, if you tried to come and save her. She’s in no trouble here; this is where some of her family stays. If you’d like, you’re more than welcome to stay a while and get something to eat before you go back to your camp.” Rick just nodded slightly, still in shock about what just happened and G turned to head back into the building. Nicole looked at her group and she smiled.

“So, are you guys coming?” Nicole bent down to pick up her bread and dusted it off before taking a bite. “My grandma made some food.” She looked at everyone and she looked at Daryl a little longer, thinking about what went through her head when she thought she had died. He shrugged her backpack off his shoulders and handed it to her. She took it and smiled, turning back around toward the building. Rick suddenly grabbed her arm.

“Nicole, what the hell is going on here?” He asked in a harsh whisper.

“We thought something terrible was happening to you!” T-Dog added.

“Not to mention, that dude that your cousin shot painted a really scary picture of what goes on here.” Glen said coming from behind Rick to inspect Nicole. She shook out of their grip and sipped her chocolate.

“What he said about my cousin is probably true. Look, let’s go get some food and we will explain everything ok?” Rick hesitantly walked in front of her, followed by Glen and T-Dog. She looked to Daryl and motioned for him to go ahead. He started walking but once he got to where she was, he took her into his arms and held her. She was never more surprised in her whole life.

“Nicole, I never got a chance to tell you, that I was happy that you made it out of the city. I didn’t mean it when I told you to go to hell; I wouldn’t want you anywhere else but here.” Nicole couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What did this mean? Surely there was no way that Daryl was in love with her, right? After all Daryl Dixon didn’t believe in love. “Once they took you away, I couldn’t imagine my life without you. I know you’re with Ray, I understand that, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t keep you safe. I see the way you look at me, through that veil of black and gold and it makes my heart speed up. It lets me know that maybe, just maybe, you want me in your life as well.” He suddenly let go of her, and walked to the building leaving Nicole to ponder what he had just told her. Her biggest problem was she had no way of interpreting it.  
~~  
Daryl waited with Rick, T-Dog and Glen for Nicole. Once she walked into the building she led them to the kitchen, where a little old lady was cooking for a bunch of old folks. There were some younger, gangster looking people as well and it caused Daryl to raise his eyebrows. ‘What the hell is going on here?’ He thought as Nicole walked to the head of the table and took a seat next to her cousin. There were four more empty chairs and Daryl decided to take the one next to Nicole. Rick sat on the other side of G, T-Dog sat next to him and Glen took the seat next to Daryl. Nicole started helping herself, putting beans and rice on her plate and grabbing two flour tortillas that the old lady had just threw down. “Gracias, abuelita.” Nicole said, causing Daryl to give a slight shiver. Her Spanish seemed to have a deep affect on him and he couldn’t figure out why.

“Ok, now I believe I owe you folks an explanation.” G loaded his plate the same as Nicole and ripped a piece of tortilla, using it to scoop some beans and rice into his mouth. “I’m in, or should I say I was, in the mob, the only reason I’m here, is because my abuela was here, with no one to help her or the others. All those men down there,” he motioned to the young guys sitting amongst the old ones. “Are my crew. We came here and we stayed here, eager to protect the old folks who had no one else to save them. We were hoping that with those guns,” He motioned to the bag that was at Rick’s feet. “We would be able to protect ourselves a little better.” G continued eating and it looked like he was done talking. Daryl looked over at everybody and they gave him the same unknown look. They then all looked at Nicole but she was eating away, spooning hot sauce all over her food and drinking a glass bottle of coke. The group just decided to go ahead and eat, to get their strength up for the journey back to the camp.  
~~  
Outside of the building, Rick had decided to give G some of the guns and ammo, despite the protests of Daryl and T-Dog. “We don’t have a lot to spare and you’re giving it away?” Daryl whispered.

“It’s Nicole’s family.” He then turned to where she was hugging her grandma goodbye. “I figure you would want the girl you love to be at ease when it came to her family.” Rick looked over at Daryl and Daryl’s heart stopped.

“What are you talking about? I’m not in love with Nicole. You better get your facts straight, cop.” He walked away as G walked toward him.

“You be careful, Rick. It’s a dangerous world out there and you’re carrying precious cargo.” He turned to his cousin who was talking with Glen, laughing about something. “You watch out for her, ok?” Rick nodded and began giving G some of his guns and ammo. “Why are you doing this? You need them to protect your people.”

“You have people to protect as well. Look Guillermo, I believe what you are doing here is justified and worthy of being protected. I wish you all the best of luck.” G whistled and one of his men came and took the guns while he and Rick shook hands. Nicole walked up at her cousin and shrugged.

“I wish I could’ve had a chance to get to know you better before all this happened.”

“Me too, prima, but don’t worry, it’s going to be ok.” He pulled her into a big hug and she hugged him back.

“Thank you so much, Guillermo.” She whispered into his shirt.

“Don’t worry about it, you go Nicole and survive and tell your brother me and abuela said hi.” She nodded and carefully put the bags of pan dulce, leftover food and homemade tortillas into her backpack. She waved and turned to leave with the group, smiling as she thought that her cousin and grandma were going to be alright. She looked to Daryl, who was walking in front of her. ‘We will all be alright.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole is safe but she has alot on her mind. Daryl told her something and she has no idea what to make of it as they begin to head back to their camp.   
> Rael has alot to answer to and it seems that some skeletons are about to rear their ugly heads.


	12. Never Get too Comfortable, Death Will Always be Waiting to Get You...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and her group are slowly making their way to camp. Daryl gets on Nicole's bad side once again, but finds a way to make up for it. Nobody knows it, but the stench of death is in the air.

Daryl and the others were still tripping out on Nicole and the whole scene that went down at her cousin’s hide out. “I don’t see what the big deal was.” Nicole said as she munched on a piece of pan dulce. “I mean, yea I’m sure you guys were worried in the beginning, but you guys could’ve cheered up a bit when you saw the coast was clear.”

“Nicole, it’s more complicated than that. That man that hurt you said scary, horrible things! He made it seem like you were going to die over there!” T-Dog exclaimed as they all slowly made their way back to where they parked their van. Nicole just laughed and Daryl abruptly stopped walking and grabbed her arm roughly.

“How the hell can you find that funny?” He yelled, causing Rick, Glen and T-Dog to look at him with wary and concerned looks.

“Oww, Daryl, what the fuck?!” She looked down at where he grabbed her, his strong rough hand causing her arm to slowly start to go numb.

“We thought you were going to die, and you laugh about it like it’s a fucking joke?!” She tried to get away from him, to break his grip on her arm but he kept his hold on her like a vice. “We thought we were never going to see you again! Can you imagine how we felt, how scared we were for you?!” He yelled in her face, he was close enough to her that she could count his eyelashes, and she felt that all she could do was stare at him, so she did, not hiding her shock his sudden outburst caused. Tears slowly began forming in her eyes, and she noticed Daryl’s eyes become a little softer, like it wasn’t his intention to hurt her. However, his grip on her arm tightened giving Rick the probable cause he needed to intervene. He came up from behind Daryl and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at Nicole and Nicole looked right back. Letting go of her roughly, Daryl walked ahead of everyone, fast enough to be alone, but not fast enough to leave the group behind. Nicole just stood their, wondering why Daryl was being so mean to her all of a sudden. One moment he’s hugging her, telling her things she never thought could possibly exist in his vocabulary, the next he’s grabbing her and yelling in her face. What was the real reason behind his behavior, why would he act that way about to her? Why?

“Nicole?” Rick wrecked her train of thought and she looked up at him, not realizing that tears stained her face. “Oh, Nicole.” He gently pulled her into a hug and she hugged him back. “Don’t let him get to you, don’t let him bring you down. He’s just worried about his brother, alright, sweetheart? It’s going to be ok.” She slowly let go of Rick and turned away, wiping her face dry and pulling herself together. She turned back around and saw T-Dog and Glen close by, while Daryl looked away from her a few feet ahead. She took a big breath, pulled up her big girl panties and nodded at Rick. He nodded back and he set off walking to the last five miles it would take to get to their van. After an hour and a half, Nicole thought she was lost. She could’ve sworn Glen had parked the van in that specific spot, she had marked the pole it was next to with a smiley face. The smiling pole was there, the van was not.

“I’m not high am I?” Nicole asked herself, as she checked the area around the pole for any sign of their van.

“I’m not, and I’m not seeing our van anywhere. Are you sure this was where you parked, Glen?” T-Dog asked, as he went to stand next to Nicole, who was looking at the smiling pole.

“I’m positive, I remember Nicole marking the pole. Who could’ve possibly stolen it?” One by one, the entire group looked at Daryl. Once Daryl felt the burn of the group’s stares he turned to them.

“What are you all gawking at?” He asked rudely, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Could Merle have taken the van?” Rick asked calmly, not wanting to piss Daryl off anymore than he was. Daryl looked at Rick and sighed.

“It’s possible; he can sure hold a grudge.” Nicole made an irritated noise and punched the pole as hard as she could, causing the guys to jump at her violent and impulsive outburst.

“That’s perfect! That’s just what we fucking need! It’s not like we’re in a big hurry to get back to camp, let’s just go for a merry, leisurely walk into the countryside!” She turned around and from a small pouch on her backpack; she pulled out a pack of Newports. With her bruised, bleeding and shaking hand she lit one and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She then began to walk in the direction they had entered the city from, eager to get back to someone other than Daryl. She hadn’t realized she was walking fast, when she heard Rick’s voice yelling behind her.

“Nicole!” She stopped and turned around, waiting for the guys to catch up with her. “Nicole, your hand!” She looked at the hand that her cigarette was in and shrugged.

“What about it?” She hit her cigarette again, giving the whole group a chance to look at the damage she did to herself.

“Jesus Christ! Nicole you split the skin to the bone!” Glen yelled, getting a little closer to her. She popped her cigarette in her mouth and looked at her hand again. Sure enough, there was some hard pearly white bone visible on two of her knuckles and the other two were hideously bruised. Her hand was shaking and as her adrenaline began to wear off, the pain began to seep in, faster that a snake’s venom. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply, the cherry of her cigarette glowing red.

“That was, by far, one of the stupidest things I have ever done.” She said softly, trying not to move her hand. Moving it caused severe pain to dominate her hand and part of her arm.

“You really need to get that temper of yours checked out.” Daryl said, walking up to her.

“Suck walker dick, Daryl Dixon!” She swore through clenched teeth as she used her left hand to throw her cigarette on the ground. Daryl got a cheesy grin on his face as he turned to Rick and the others.

“Listen to that mouth! Girl, you swear worse than Merle.” He walked over to her and scooped her up into his arms and threw her over his shoulder.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” She protested as she punched his back with her right hand, forgetting about the injury she just sustained. As she let out and extensive and creative stream of curses, Daryl began to explain his actions.

“You can’t go very fast with your hand fucked up. You hardly weigh anything at all, so I don’t mind carrying you. It will get us back to camp faster. So don’t complain, and watch where you stick those big ass heels of yours.” Once she admitted defeat, she relaxed on Daryl’s shoulder, flipping off T-Dog, Rick and Glen as they laughed at the awkward position she was in. After about thirty minutes, Nicole got into the rhythm Daryl was running at and she soon found herself rocked to sleep, hanging limp on Daryl Dixon’s shoulder.

~~~***~~~

“Nicole, wake up! Wake up!” Nicole was forced from her dreams but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Daryl put her on her feet and she suddenly heard why. It was dark and coming deep from the darkness was the sounds of gunshots and screams.

“Oh my God!” She clenched her fists, ignoring the pain shooting up her arm and she ran. She ran faster than she ever has before. She had family in that camp. She had to make sure they were ok. She couldn’t hear what the guys were saying behind her, she didn’t really care. All she cared about was getting to Ray, Rael and Bubba. She ran into a camp full of walkers and she didn’t have a single weapon on her. Once she got into the middle of camp, she saw some people didn’t make it, their bodies were strewn onto the floor and walkers were digging into them. Tears streaming down her face, she began calling for Ray. “Ray! Ray, where are you?!” She was lost, alone and completely afraid. She didn’t even notice the walker coming at her.

“Nicole!” Ray’s voice boomed over everything and she turned around, finding herself face to face with a walker. It lunged for her and she fell but before it could do anything, Ray threw himself on her. The walker bit down on his shoulder and his blood fell all over Nicole. His screams were by far the worst thing Nicole has ever heard. She watched as the walker ripped muscle and sinew from his shoulder and then bites down again on his neck, soaking her once more in his warm blood. She screamed as loud as she could, not believing the sight she was seeing right in front of her. The veins and skin that ripped from Ray’s neck looked like it was far away, Nicole felt like she was in some wet warm blanket and she didn’t notice Rael hit the walker with a bat, and beat its dead brains in once it was off of Ray. Nicole slowly rose up and went to Ray. He was barely alive, gasping for his last breaths of air.

“Ray, baby, let me see, let me help you Ramon! Please!” She screamed at him, tears pouring down her face as she tried to put pressure on both of Ray’s bites.

“Get away, Nicole. Get away from me!” He gargled, as he tried to push you away. By now, all the walkers had been taken care of and an eerie cloud of death, sorrow, decay and hopelessness fell onto the camp. Nicole stayed with Ray, despite his persistence to push her away. He shakily reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small box. “This, this is what I was waiting for.” He opened the box and inside was a beautiful diamond ring. Nicole cried even harder, as she reached for the ring. She looked back at Ray, whose eyes were closed and his chest no longer rising. She looked at him for a good while before she called his name.

“Ray, hey, Ray? Ray! Ray, wake up! Wake the fuck up! You can’t do that to me! You can’t leave me here! Please Ray! Wake up now, I need you! Ray!” Her screams echoed throughout the whole camp and somewhere a few feet from her, Jim was talking about a dream he had, just the night before.

~~~***~~~

Nicole wouldn’t let anyone come near Ray, not even Rael. She stayed with him, looking like a feral dog every time anybody got to close. “He’s going to wake up. He’s going to be just fine.” She whispered to herself, just as dawn was beginning to break. She kept looking at the ring she had put on her finger. He had wanted to marry her. That’s what he had up his sleeve this whole time, and she had never figured it out. Soon, activity began to buzz in the camp, but Nicole stayed rooted to her spot next to Ray. She held his hand and stroked his hair, barely realizing the little hints of blond in his bangs, the way his nose curved a little at the end and soft feel of his lips.

“Nicole.” She turned around sharply at the sound of her name. Rick was standing a foot away from her. “Nicole, you know what happens to them once they get bitten.” She shook her head.

“It’s not going to happen to Ray. He’s going to wake up and he’s going to be just fine.” She turned back around as she noticed the hand she was holding twitch. She looked down and Ray and smiled. “Watch Rick. He’s going to be ok. He’s going to be just fine.” His body twitched some more and slowly, his eyes opened, not looking at anything but staring at everything. “Ray?” She whispered. He turned toward her, and she gently ran her thumb against his cheek. He placed a hand over hers and brought his fingers slowly to her face. He stood up tall over her, and she stood up with him, believing that there was nothing wrong with him, that he really was going to be ok. He looked at her and she looked at him. All of a sudden, he grabbed her hair and her arm. “Ray, what’s the matter? Please let go of me, Ray.” He growled as he realized he had his breakfast there in his arms. She tried to fight him off, but with her being up all night and her injured hand, it was going to be a fight she was going to lose. Right when she felt her arms about to give out from keeping Ray from biting her, she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her out of Ray’s grip. She was pushed back toward Rick and the last thing she was Daryl shoving a pick axe into Ray’s head. “NOOOOO!!!!” That outburst took the last of her strength and Nicole blacked out, landing roughly in the hard dirt.

~~~***~~~

Daryl couldn’t get what was going through Nicole’s head. Ray was obviously a walker and she tried to hug him. He had to do something, especially when walker Ray grabbed her. She looked up at him like there was no reason he should be doing that to her. Once she saw her arms shake with exhaustion, he stepped in and pulled her away from him. Once she was out of harm’s way, he stuck his pick axe into Ray’s brain. Nicole screamed from behind, but once he turned to confront her; she had already passed out and was lying in the dirt. He walked over to her, not caring who was watching, not giving two fucks if Rick, Rael or anybody else was looking as he scooped her up gently like she was precious silk and walked toward his truck. He opened it and laid her down in the cab. She looked so broken, so torn, like this world was doing all it could to break the beauty she brought into it. She looked down at her hand, down at the ring Ray was going to propose to her with. ‘How could I be so stupid?’ He thought as he stood up. ‘She was going to marry him, for fuck’s sakes.’ He walked away to find some water, to cool Nicole down with. Once he got the water, he lit a small fire and boiled some rags he got from the Winnebago. He only boiled the water for a few minutes and then stomped the fire out. Leaving the water to cool, he went to find Glen who had taken Nicole’s backpack when he threw her over his shoulder. He found him with T-Dog, throwing geeks into a fire. “Glen!” He looked up at Daryl and wiped his face, walking toward him.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“I need Nicole’s backpack. Where did you put it last night?” He looked down as if remembering Nicole’s loss.

“I put it in hers and Ray’s tent.” Daryl nodded and walked away. “How is she?” He called out. Daryl stopped and slowly turned around.

“She’s still out of it but I think she’ll be ok.” Glen nodded and walked back to T-Dog to give him the report on their friend Nicole. Daryl turned back around and walked toward the red and black tent. He opened it and saw her backpack on the bed. He grabbed it and he saw a box that was marked ‘Nicole’ with clothes pouring out of it. He looked into the box and pulled out some jeans and a small t-shirt. He also, without looking, felt around the box for her undergarments. Daryl placed the clothes on her bed and took out the food that her grandma had given her. He then placed her clothes in her bag and zipped it up, leaving the tent. He went back to Nicole with his water in hand and her bag on his back. She was still out of it when he got to his truck. He sighed and began wiping her face and arms with the cool rags. She stirred slightly but she didn’t wake up. Once he cooled her down, he got up one more time and went to look for Lori. He wanted to get her out of those clothes but he didn’t want her to wake up and see it was him. She probably would be more at ease if a woman was undressing her. He found her with Rick and Carl. He walked toward them and Rick sent Carl away with Sophia.

“What happened? Is Nicole alright?” Rick asked as he and Lori met him the rest of the way.

“She’s still out of it, but I think she’s going to be ok. I actually wanted to ask you something Lori. I don’t want Nicole to stay in those bloody clothes anymore and I was just wondering if you could help her. I have clothes for her in her bag but I don’t want her to wake up in an uncomfortable position, if you get what I mean.” He felt heat rising in her cheeks and Lori understood completely.

“Of course, Daryl.” She smiled at him and he nodded, handing over the bag. “She is really pretty, isn’t she?” She said. Daryl turned to look at her but she was already walking away, going to recruit the help of Carol and Jacqui. He turned to Rick who just gave him a small smile as he turned to go look for Carl, leaving Daryl with his thoughts that only consisted of Nicole. All of a sudden, he saw Bubba walk up to him. He looked down at this small little boy and he looked up at him.

“What’s up little man?” He asked, kneeling down to his level. The little boy just giggled and pointed to the sky.

“Clouds.” He said, as he looked up. Daryl looked up as well and sure enough there were a collection of white fluffy clouds suspended in the blue of the sky.

“You’re right, little man. The clouds are up.” He looked at the little boy and found him staring at Daryl.

“What happened to Uncle Ray?” He asked. “Why did he try to hurt my Nicole?” Daryl didn’t know what to tell him. He didn’t even know Little Rael was even around when it happened.

“Your Uncle Ray got sick, and he tried to hurt Nicole because he was sick. He didn’t know what he was doing.” Daryl tried to explain. He had never been around children before and he wasn’t sure on how to act around them.

“Is that why you killed him?” Daryl was appalled this little kid knew a hell of a lot more than he should for being only five years old. He knew lying to the small boy wasn’t going to do any good, so he didn’t even try.

“Yes. He was going to hurt Nicole so I saved her.” Little Rael looked at Daryl with the sincerity and innocence only a small child could have.

“Do you love my Nicole?” Daryl thought long and hard about that next question. He felt that he did, he felt that same pang he felt when the vatos took her, he felt the same pang when he yelled at her once they left from her cousin’s place and he felt the same pang when he saw her almost get killed by Ray.

“Yes. I do love her, little man.” He smiled and suddenly crawled into Daryl’s arms, hugging his neck. Daryl didn’t know what to do, so he just knelt there with his arms outstretched, utterly confused.

“I love her too.” The small child said as he hugged Daryl tighter. Daryl finally was able to hug the child back. He chuckled a bit and he stood up, carrying him in his arms, the world suddenly made a better place all thanks to the small hug of Little Rael Montez.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ray is dead. Nicole is lost, and Daryl is confused. He wants to help her in anyway he can but with the love of her life gone, will she be willing to accept it?


	13. Help me Take Off my Balmain Jeans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray is dead and Daryl is alive. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

Nicole slowly opened her eyes. She was lying in the cab of a truck and it was dark outside. She looked down, noticing someone had changed her and she blushed thinking who it could’ve been. She rose slowly and she jumped when the door opened. Daryl got into the truck and sat next to her. “Are you ok?” He asked, looking over at her. She nodded and looked down at her hand. Ray was gone, but Daryl was still there. She took a good look at his face, noticing the bags of sleeplessness under his eyes. He looked tired, like he had been up watching her all night.

“Daryl, have you been asleep yet?” She asked. He looked at her and shook his head.

“Nope, not a wink, why?”

“Have you been watching me this whole time?” She asked. He nodded his head.

“I was worried about you, alright? Anything I’ve done to you was only because I worry about you. Ever since I knew Ray, I knew he was a trouble magnet. When I heard about his girlfriend, I was worried for whoever she was because I knew he would most likely get her into some sort of trouble. Then, that first night I met you, I felt that you needed to be protected, you were so small to me. I mean, you looked really short.” He gave a small laugh and Nicole joined him. That was the first time she had ever heard Daryl Dixon laugh.

“I’m not that short Daryl.” She said as she looked up at him and smiled. Something struck in her heart, like a powerful gong, when he smiled back at her. It had been true this whole time. She really did love Daryl. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know why. All she knew was that it had been true for God knows how long. She scooted close to him and pulled him into her arms. She tried with all her might to extend all her love for him in that single embrace. He slowly began to wrap his arms around her and hugged her back. She couldn’t describe the feeling she was having, she was hurt and upset about Ray but she felt at least 85% of that go away when she held Daryl in her arms. It was like she was meant to be with him in this alternate walker-infested world. She broke the embrace and looked at him, really looked at him. Her heart just soared when she saw him, he was strong and defiant, the perfect person for her. All of a sudden, Daryl kissed her. He kissed her in a way he never kissed anybody before. He kissed her with only one thing on his mind, love. He loved her that he was sure of. He was sure of it since she was kidnapped, just a meager few hours ago. When he saw her get taken away and the thought of never seeing her again made him believe, truly believe. Daryl Dixon now believed in a thing called love. It took a girl named Nicole Montez to make him see it and her five year old nephew, Rael Montez III to get him to admit it. He broke the kiss and she looked a little dazed and glassy eyed.

“Nicole, are you ok?” He asked. She answered by kissing him again, more feeling thrown into this kiss than any he’s ever received before.

“Yea, I’m ok.” She answered when she broke it. She figured it was the time, the perfect moment to tell Daryl the truth.

“I love you.” They both said at the exact same time, completely shocking the hell out of each other.

“What did you say?” They said once again.

“Shit, stop reading my mind Daryl!” Nicole playfully yelled at him as she grabbed his hand.

“Hey, girl, it’s you not me.” He laughed as he grabbed her hand back. He looked at her looking right back and he smiled. “I really do love you, Nicole.” He whispered, looking seriously and deeply into her eyes.

“I love you too, Daryl.” She kissed him once more and held onto him. He held her right back, hoping that he wasn’t dreaming, hoping that he wouldn’t wake up to find Ray still alive and Nicole married to him. “You need to get some sleep, dude.” She told him as he tried to stifle a yawn.

“What about you?” He asked as he exited his truck. She followed him, tripping slightly causing Daryl to quickly catch her before she hit her head on his door. “Be careful, Nicole!” He whispered as he straitened her up. She grinned up at him. “What are you going to do?”

“Go to sleep with you, of course. I just want to smoke a quick bowl. It will put me to sleep more quickly.” He grinned down at her as she walked next to him to her tent.

“I hope you understand, but I put all of Ray’s stuff in a box and put it next to his body. We haven’t buried him yet; we thought we should wait for you to wake up, so we were going to do it before we left tomorrow.”

“Where we going?” She asked as she sat on the mattress, taking her socks off.

“Rick wants to head to the CDC. Jim also got himself bit and he wants to try to get him help.” Nicole’s eyes widened in shock.

“He got bit?” Daryl nodded and Nicole exhaled standing up. She walked over to her box and began pulling pajamas out for her and Daryl. “Is a big shirt and shorts ok?” She asked as she turned around to look at him.

“Ok for what?” He asked as he began to loosen his laces.

“Pajamas, silly.” She giggled as she got her pajamas.

“Oh well, I usually just sleep in my boxers.” He answered, blushing slightly.

“That’s fine.” She smiled as she took her shirt and pants off. Daryl just stood there; he didn’t know what to do. She was undressing in front of him and his first thoughts were to look away, to be decent. However, he was already transfixed by her body, softly bathed in moonlight. He couldn’t help himself. He watched her. She turned to him and he quickly looked down. She smirked and walked toward him. “Were you peeking, Daryl?” She seductively asked, getting him to look back up at her.

“Maybe.” He replied, as ran his hands over her back. She kissed him and he picked her up, gently placing her on the mattress. He used his knee to get in between her legs, and he grinned down at her. She then did something she felt she needed to do, for herself and Daryl. She took the ring off her finger and dropped it to the ground. She then began to help Daryl get out of his pants and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He lowered himself to kiss her and at the same time, sneakily slid himself into her. She gasped in pleasure and she grabbed his wrists as they supported his body while he slowly glided in and out of her. She shuddered and moaned as he lowered his body onto hers so he could go faster. He pulled a sheet over them and continued. He went faster and faster and Nicole began to dig her nails into his back. That sexy pain caused Daryl to get a second wind and he began to slow down, enjoying the feel of Nicole’s arms and legs wrapped around his body. She began to glide her fingers over his back, giving him light scratches down his back. He went faster again, causing Nicole to call out and moan softly into the night. He kissed her neck softly and she smiled, running her fingers through Daryl’s hair and pulling it slightly. He chuckled and went harder but kept the same pace. She moaned louder and he finally came inside her, feeling her legs tighten around his waist and her nails go deeper. He gently collapsed on her, the both of them breathing hard. She reached for his hand and gripped it tightly. He kissed her cheek and smiled at her. She smiled back and he rose up, making a crazy face as he slowly slid out of her. “Sorry.” He said softly as he fixed her panties for her. She giggled and looked up at him with a confused look.

“You’re crazy Daryl Dixon.”

“Crazy in love with you.” He said as he lay next to her, holding her in his arms.

“And I am with you.” She said, giving him a kiss and getting comfortable.

“Wait, weren’t you going to smoke first?” He asked.

“I don’t think I need to, you kinda wore me out enough.” He laughed and laid his head on her shoulder and they both fell into a peaceful sleep, the best sleep either of them had had in a good long while.

~~~***~~~

Nicole woke to the sound of people talking. She shielded her eyes from the brightness of the light coming in from the mesh of the tent and turned around, uncovering herself in the process. She was just about to fall back asleep when she heard the sound of something unzipping. She growled slightly and forces herself to slowly open one eye. It was hard to see with the bright light shining in her eyes, but what she did see was what was left of the camp after the attack. It was Rick, Rael, Lori, Glen, Andrea, Shane, Dale, T-Dog and Jacqui, who were standing in the opening of the tent staring at her. She closed her eye, hoping that they would leave her alone. “What the fuck is going on here?!” It was Rael’s loud ass voice.

“Rael, shut up! It’s too early for this!” Nicole yelled, turning over in the mattress.

“You’re right; it is way too early to find my little sister half naked in a bed with a fucking redneck that also happens to be half naked!” Without opening her eyes, she brought her hand to her chest and her eyes immediately popped open. She shot up and looked down at herself. Sure enough, she had no clothes on except for her bra and panties. She pulled the sheet to cover herself, noticing that Daryl lay beside her in his gray boxers.

“Oh shit!” Nicole started laughing and she began smacking Daryl on his chest. “Hey wake up! Rise and shine, cupcake.” Daryl stirred and opened his eyes, turning towards Nicole before looking up.

“What the hell are you all doing in here?!” He yelled, getting behind Nicole, covering himself as well.

“We came to get Nicole so we could bury Ray.” Rick said, unsure of what to make of the scene he found himself in front of.

“Right, we need to be leaving soon, sorry. Let us get dressed and we’ll be right out.” Nicole said. The group slowly dispersed and the last to leave was Rael, eyeing Daryl with an unknown look, before he finally turned and walked away. Nicole started laughing and Daryl looked at her like she was nuts.

“What’s so funny?” He asked, brushing a stray strand of hair from Nicole’s face.

“The looks on all their faces when they saw us laying here. They were priceless.” Nicole giggled as she got out of bed, walking over to her box. Daryl picked up his jeans from their spot next to the bed as she grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans and Bob Marley shirt.

“They all just barged in, and I didn’t hear them?” He asked as he found his shirt.

“Nope, you were sleeping like a cute little rock.” She teased.

“Shut up.” Daryl said, giving her a smile. Once they were dressed, they walked out of the tent to where everyone else was waiting, next to Ray’s dead body. It was wrapped in a sheet and the box of his belongings were at his feet. A hole was already dug and Rick and Shane were waiting for her signal to lower him. She nodded and they lifted him up, placing him in the hole and placing his box as well. Nicole went to the edge and placed his ring on his chest. He was dead and there wasn’t anything she could do to change that. If walkers never roamed the Earth, she may have married him, but in this other world, he wasn’t meant to live. She wasn’t meant to be with him, she was meant to be with Daryl. That was how the dice was rolled and that was the card she was dealt. Yea she loved Ray, but she loved Daryl too, and Ray was dead and Daryl was alive. There wasn’t anything she would change.

~~~***~~~

It was finally time to head out. Jim was getting worse and everyone was getting antsy. Nicole stood next to Daryl as Shane was telling everyone about what’s going to go down once we get on the road. Nicole wasn’t really paying attention. She used to block his voice out when he would lecture her every single time he pulled her over and she kind of haven’t broke the habit. All of a sudden, she saw Lori and Jacqui hugging Morales’s wife and kids. Morales was taking his family somewhere else, they weren’t following Rick to the CDC. Shane and Rick gave him a gun and ammo, and Nicole hopped into the truck, right as Bubba ran up to her, with Rael right behind him. “Where do you think you’re going?” Rael asked Bubba as he tried to climb into the truck after Nicole.

“I wanna go with Nicole.” He answered as Rael picked him up.

“No sir, you’re coming with me.” Rael took Bubba away and didn’t even acknowledge Nicole or Daryl. He just scooped up his son, and walked away. Daryl looked toward them and waved to Bubba who was looking back at them. He slid into the truck and waited for the convoy to move.

“What’s his problem?” Daryl asked as he slammed his door.

“I think it has to do with him finding us half naked this morning.” Nicole laughed as Daryl gave her a weird look.

“I still can’t believe that shit. They saw us in bed!” He started the truck and began following Shane’s jeep as the convoy exited the quarry.

“Yea, but it’s water under the bridge now.” She scooted closer to Daryl and rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her. “Don’t worry so much dear, you’ll get wrinkles.” He laughed at her and gently squeezed her. She closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the sun on her face and the man right next to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and Daryl have sealed the deal, but is it a little soon after Ray? Tell me what you guys think and sorry for the lack of updates, life got in the way.


	14. How Can You Hope to Survive when Death is Around Every Damn Corner?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is getting smaller and their options are running low. How will the group stay alive?

Nicole jolted awake as Daryl’s truck came to a stop. She stretched and yawned as Daryl tried to see the reason for the convoy stopping. “We better go see what’s up, dude.” Nicole said as she straightened her Bob Marley shirt and opened the truck door. She saw it had something to do with the R.V., as Dale and Glen stood in front of it with smoke pouring out of it.

Nicole knew absolutely nothing about cars but Rael was a real whizz. He was helping trying to figure out what was going on. Once she came into view, she got a few looks from some of the survivors, especially Carol. She eyed her in a way that made Nicole feel very uncomfortable. It couldn’t have something to do with what happened with her and Daryl could it? Whatever the reason was, Nicole didn’t want to find out. She kept her gaze down and walked over to her brother and Rick.

“Hey.” Rick said as she walked up to him. She nodded to him and looked over at what her brother was up to. It looked like the van wasn’t going to be fixed anytime soon.

“What’s going on here?” Nicole asked as Rael sighed, wiping his hands on a small towel.

“The van’s radiator hose is completely destroyed. Dale doesn’t have a single strip of duct tape left in the R.V. to fix it. I don’t know what else to do.” He looked down at his little sister and gave her chin a small playful punch. “Sorry about how I’ve been acting, I just didn’t know how else to react finding you in that position. I’m your big brother Nicole, what did you expect?” She shrugged her shoulders.

“I dunno I didn’t really expect you and half the entire camp to barge into my tent this morning.” Nicole put her hands on her hips and glared at her brother. He scoffed at her.

“So, you’re with the redneck now?” He asked her, a darkness settling over his mood like gray thunderheads. She lowered her head as she noticed people start to warily walk away from the scene beginning to unfold.

She was in no mood to deal with her brother; her hand was still hurting like crazy, she just so happened to make it a little worse in her fornication with Daryl the previous night, she had a terrible ache in her head, like a throbbing you get when you sleep too much, and she was starving. She gave Daryl and the rest of the group, what was left of it anyways, the leftovers her grandma gave her and she had none left for her, not even a small piece of pan dulce.

She sighed angrily, really not in the mood.

“What’s it to you, Rael? Things are different now, I have nobody else in this world to look after me, not even you. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you’ve changed.

“You’re not the same, Number Two. What’s going on? You haven’t been yourself, well hell, since I fucking showed up! Not to mention, I heard about what you did to Carol’s husband, how you and Shane almost beat him to death?

“That’s not you, Rael. That’s not the person you are. You’re fading away, like an exorcised demon and it’s scaring me. I don’t want to lose you, brother.” Nicole grabbed her brother’s arm with her good hand. He looked down at her with an unknown look.

“You worry too much, Nicole. You think too hard about shit and it makes your brain come up with all these fucking delusions and thoughts that can’t possibly be true. Don’t think too much, hell, don’t think at all. It’s never been your strong point.”

“Go suck a dick, Rael. You don’t know what the fuck I’ve had to think about, alright?” She glared angrily at her brother and sighed, fighting the urge to punch the front of the R.V. remembering her injured hand. “You know what, I’m over this shit. You’re fucking insane, just downright loony, and I’m so fucking over it.” She turned around and began to walk away.

“Once again, you’re showing your ability to quickly get over shit.” She turned back around and looked into his eyes, seeing loathing and hate in them. “First Sam Rocter, now Ray. Only you didn’t kill Ray, you jumped into bed with some crack head hours after he died. I figured as much actually, I mean you killed a man in cold blood and didn’t even bat one of those long dark eyelashes. You just pulled the trigger and went on your merry way.” He gave a little smirk. “Nicole Montez, cold blooded killer and world’s dumbest bitch.” Nicole’s jaw dropped as Rael walked away from her. She felt like she had been punched in the gut. It was like nobody who was witness to what happened that night didn’t even really see what happened. Ray and Rael were there, they both witness what was going to happen to Nicole. That was something she had no choice in; she couldn’t help what went down with Sam because it was either him or her. Nobody seemed to get that.

“Hey,” Daryl came up from behind her, and she turned around to look into his beautiful eyes. “What’s the matter?” What would he think? Would he see Nicole as a killer, as someone who can easily take the life of someone? Would he understand her intentions and not judge her like her dead boyfriend and her asshole brother?

“Nothing, just a little tired.” She smiled at him, hiding the conflict behind her eyes. She won’t share that bit with him, not yet. “Are we about to get going?”

“It may be a little bit; Shane and T-Dog went to see if they could get some supplies from a nearby gas station and Rick’s in the R.V. talking to Jim. He’s not doing well.”

‘Poor Jim,’ Nicole thought to herself. ‘It must be scary knowing that you were just mere hours away from becoming a flesh eating freak.’ Rick walked out of the R.V. and Nicole walked over to him.

“How your hand?” Rick asked her as she walked up.

“It hurts like hell. I boiled a rag to wrap it in; I didn’t want to end up like Heroine Bob.” She laughed and looked up, seeing that, due to the confused looks on the groups face, that no one got her reference. She shook her head. “Never mind.”

Rick waited a few moments for Shane and T-Dog to get back before he told the group what Jim had said.

“He wants to be left here. He can’t go on anymore.” The group stayed quiet until Carol spoke up.

“He doesn’t mean that, does he? I mean, he’s not himself.”

“He seems to be, yea. I mean, it is what he wants.” Rick looked over at Shane who looked ready to say something.

“You can’t expect me to just go along with leaving a man here.” Shane put in. “We can’t do that.”

“I don’t think that’s up to you.” Lori said, causing the group to look up at her. “He’s the one who’s sick, he tried to make it as far as he could and he’s reached his limit. He wants us to leave him so we should so what he wants.” She walked over to Carol and stood next to her.

She seemed to convince Shane because he and Rick went into the R.V. and came back out with Jim in their arms. They lead him to the edge of the forest and sat him against a tree.

He got this small little smile on his face, as the gentle breeze ruffled his hair. He seemed content and Rick began to talk to him. Nicole walked away toward Daryl’s truck. She never exchanged a single word with the man so she didn’t think it was right for her to be there.

She sighed as she walked past Rael’s Camaro and saw Bubba sleeping in the passenger seat. She smiled and ruffled his hair through the open window. He stirred a bit but didn’t wake up. She thought about how stupid Rael was and she continued walking.

Once she got to the truck, she grabbed her Newports and with her good hand, she tried to light it. After about the third try, she succeeded and she watched as the group say their goodbyes to Jim and walk back to either their vehicles or the R.V. She walked to the other side of the truck when she saw Daryl walking toward her.

She opened the door and hopped in, lowering the window down halfway. He got in the car and sighed as he slammed the door.

“Damn, that sucks for Jim, huh?” He asked her as he looked up ahead and waited for the convoy to take off.

“Yea, it sure does.” She answered. She leaned her head back as he started the truck. He looked over at her and placed a hand on hers. She looked at him and smiled, getting a smile back. She scooted closer and rested her head on his shoulder, ashing her cigarette.

It sucked for all of them. Not just Jim, but the whole group, was in a real situation here. They were going into Dallas, not knowing what they were going to find, going on a hunch that their leader had about finding help.

What if they don’t find it? What if there is nothing there? What if they get there and they all die? Nobody knows what is going to happen to them, not anymore. They are in a world where there is a very low chance of survival and absolutely no hope.

~~~***~~~***~~~

Nicole had a feeling that Rick made the wrong choice in coming here the moment they pulled up. There were dead bodies everywhere, and the CDC looked completely dead. She hopped off the truck and swung her backpack over her shoulders. She reached into the truck bed and grabbed her axe, handing it to Daryl. With her hand wrapped up, she couldn’t swing it to save her life. She stayed behind him as they walked to the building.

She looked over at Rael, who was carrying Bubba, trying to shield him from seeing the mass of dead bodies all over the ground, and he looked back at her, slightly nodding his head.

Once they got to the doors, Nicole knew in her heart that they were all dead. Rick banged on the door and nothing happened.

“Rick, what do we do?” Nicole asked as she clung to Daryl’s vest. Rick banged again and Shane walked up to him.

“There is nobody here, Rick. We need to go, now!” Rick didn’t move, even as the group began slowly walking back to the vehicles. “Rick, we need to go!”

“Someone has to be here, Shane.” Rick looked up at the doors with a sad look in his eyes, as if trying to force the doors to open.

“Walkers!” Daryl yelled out and he gently pushed Nicole away. There was a walker in a military uniform heading right toward the group. Daryl jogged a bit to meet it and shot an arrow right into its head. He then turned back around with a look that could kill on his face. “Why the hell did you bring us here?!” He yelled, rushing Rick. Shane got in between them before Daryl could cause damage.

“It was Rick’s decision so just shut up!” Shane pushed Daryl back and Nicole grabbed onto him, trying to keep a hold of her sanity before madness completely overtook her.

“Rick, look it’s not your fault but we need to get out of here.” Lori said as she came up from behind him and tried to pull him away.

“Where are we going to go, huh?” Andrea asked.

“I don’t know but we can’t stay here. Let’s go!” Shane yelled and started heading back toward the vehicles. Then Rick began to have a meltdown.

“Please!” He yelled at the small white camera that was positioned right above the door. “We need your help! I know there is someone in there and I know you can see us out here. We have nowhere to go and we have no supplies. We need help please!”

“Rick, brother, we got to go, this place is dead.” Shane came and pulled him away from the doors.

“No! You have to let us in or we’re going to die! We’re going to die!” Shane pushed Rick ahead of him and all of a sudden, a bright white light shown from the inside of the building as the door rose. The small group of survivors stared in awe as they were just saved from a terrible fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rick brought the group to the CDC but what is waiting for them within its cold walls?


	15. Life was so Much Simpler when You Didn't Have to Fight for It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is let into the CDC, but are they any safer than before?

Rael II walked out of his house in Raventon, and took a deep breath of air. ‘Today is going to be a good day,’ he thought as he walked to his Camaro. He hopped into it and turned it on, some dub step leaking out of the speakers. After lighting a cigarette, he set out in his car to visit Nicole in the hospital. Rael never really had someone stay in the hospital for an extended period of time and since this particular someone was his baby sister, he made an effort to see her every day.

Rael Jr. would usually make the trip along with Rael, along with Mike, Brian or T.J. but they were playing basketball, trying to pick up on some hooch and his father was out buying groceries to make dinner that night. Rael grinned as he remembered the conversation him and his old man had before he left.

“Now remember, my son, you are at that hospital to visit your sister. You are not there to flirt with all those young nurses.” Rael laughed at his dad as he switched Brave Heart off on the television.

“Pop, I can’t help it if they feel that they have to comfort me.” Rael Jr. swatted his son’s head and grabbed his car keys and headed toward the door.

“Give my love to the little outlaw, alright?”

“Sure thing, dad,” Rael smiled at the memories as he pulled into the hospital parking lot. Snuffing his cigarette out, he exited his Camaro, stuffed into some dark jeans, a white Metal Mulisha shirt and white Nikes, and barged straight to Nicole’s room.

Giving and receiving the usual greetings as he walked through the hallway it made him realize that Nicole has been in this creepy hospital for a very long time. It was going on three weeks and she hadn’t made a signal sign of coming out of it. He sat in the chair next to her bed, and took her hand.

Once they had gotten to the hospital that night, she woke up for only five minutes. She opened her eyes, and asked if the new episode of Adventure Time was a good one. Rael didn’t understand what she was talking about and leaned in a little closer to her.

At that moment, she punched him in the face and cursed him for pulling her to that stupid party. The energy she put into the punch was enough to break Rael’s nose and put her into a coma. That was what the doctors couldn’t figure out. She was healing slowly but she just couldn’t wake up. Thinking back on that night caused Rael to smile, he knew in his heart his little sister was a fighter.

If anybody could make it out of this, it would be her.

All of a sudden, there were screams and shouts coming from the hallway. Rael got up, and opened the door. There were people leaving the hospital in droves. Rael grabbed hold of a doctor and looked him on the eye.

“What is going on here, doc? Why are all of you leaving? I need help with my little sister, who is going to help me?” The doctor looked at Rael and vigorously shook his head.

“Nobody is going to help you, son. Something terrible is happening and you should leave. Get out of here and save yourself while you still can!” The doctor pushed Rael and took off down the hallway away from him. Rael swore as he punched the door and ran in the opposite direction. He heard from the other rooms, screams and shouts of people the doctors had left. These were people who couldn’t move on their own, who had no way of getting up and running out the door.

Rael stopped and looked at this small old man crying. He was all alone and he was hitting his legs as if willing them to move, thinking that if he hit his legs hard enough, he would be able to run away from this. Rael kept moving and found just what he was looking for; a gurney that he could use to take Nicole away from all this. Rael ran to it and saw some military talking to a few doctors and nurses.

He raised his hand to them, when all of a sudden the military started shooting the hospital personal for no apparent reason. Rael ducked at the noise and began to think rapidly. What was going on, why was this happening? Rael looked up and saw the military heading right for him.

Just when he thought he was about to get shot, the doors behind the army busted open and people came through. They grabbed hold of the closest man and began ripping into him. Rael looked at the scene in shock and ducked once again as man who got chomped on began to shoot his weapon involuntarily, taking the rest of the group out.

Rael didn’t stay a second longer. He grabbed the gurney and pushed it back to Nicole’s room. It wouldn’t fit into the room so he went to Nicole’s bed, and tried to pick her up. It didn’t work. He looked over at her monitors and tried to make out what they were saying.

“Nicole, what do I do?” He looked over at his sister, who looked so helpless and even a little bit dead. He heard footsteps approaching and he ducked down, hoping they wouldn’t shoot Nicole.

“This one is already dead. Hurry up; we have to go before the platoon leaves us.” A soldier said and Rael heard the footsteps depart and he slowly stood back up.

“Help me, Nicole, tell me what to do!” He began crying as she lay there motionless as ever. “Please,” Rael jumped as a tremor shook the hospital, causing the lights to go out and Nicole’s machines to switch off. He looked down at his sister, and saw she wasn’t breathing. “No, Nicole, don’t leave me. Nicole wake up, come on! Wake the fuck up!”

Rael screamed in Nicole’s face but she didn’t budge. Tears streaming down his face, Rael kissed his little sisters head and walked out of her room. Right across the hall, closing a door right across the hall was Officer Shane Walsh. He looked up in shock at Rael and Rael looked up in shock at him.

“Rael Montez? Son, we have to get out of here. I don’t know what’s going on but we need to leave.” Rael placed the empty gurney in front of Nicole’s door, and followed after the police officer, eyeing him warily as Shane drew his gun and slowly proceeded through the hospital.

Some of the people who had busted through the doors were slowly making their way through the hospital. Before they turned the corner to exit the hospital, Rael began to hear the blood curdling screams of the old man as one of those sick people barged into his room. Rael couldn’t get the screams of that old man out of his head for a very long time.

They finally made it to Rael’s car and hopped in. Rael and Shane decided that they would team up for the time being, just for means of survival.

They got to Rael’s house and they hopped out of the car very quickly.

“Shane, just grab some of the essentials you’re sure we’re going to need. I have to get some stuff from mine and Nicole’s room and look for my dad. He should be here his truck was in the driveway. We’ll meet back at my car.”

“Alright then,” Shane took off his way and Rael took off his. He walked into his room and grabbed his stash of guns, ammo and knives. He then went into Nicole’s room and grabbed her stash of the same. He put all his weapons into a duffel bag and ran into the bathroom. He grabbed from under the sink, Nicole’s small marijuana plant.

This little plant was something that she had put her whole heart into and it was in a very sad way, a way for Rael to cope with the death of his sister. He placed the bags of pot in his duffel bag and held the plant in his arms. Rael went into his father’s room and found him kneeling over something.

“Pop, we have to go. I have supplies packed already. I don’t know what’s going on but we have to get out of here.” Rael Jr. lifted his head up slowly, blood dripping from his mouth and a bite mark on his arm and looked right at his son. Rael couldn’t make out what he was seeing. “Dad? What’s the matter?” Rael just watched as his father stood up and slowly lumbered towards him.

“Rael, are you almost ready?” Shane walked into the room and looked over at Rael Jr.

“What’s the matter with him, dude?” Rael asked as his dad got closer to him, gnashing those bloody teeth reaching out to his son.

“He’s infected.” Shane drew his gun and pointed it at Rael’s dad.

“What are you doing?!” Rael got in front of Shane, not knowing why he suddenly had a gun pointed at his father.

“You have to shoot him, Rael! I don’t know what’s going on, but these people aren’t people. They’re something else, trust me.” Shane handed his gun to Rael. “You should take care of it.” Shane hurriedly ran out of the room and Rael looked back at him, unsure of what exactly he was talking about.

Once he turned around, his father grabbed a hold of his clothes and tried to bite down on him. Rael yelled and fell to the floor, trying to position the gun into his father’s open mouth. Blood and spit fell onto his chest and neck as he looked into his father’s eyes one more time.

“I’m sorry, old man.” Rael pulled the trigger. Brains, blood and pieces of skull busted through the back of Rael Jr’s head like confetti in a party popper. He looked down at the body of his father and felt a chill go up his spine.

He then grabbed Nicole’s plant and his duffel bag and turned around, running right into Nicole’s boyfriend Ray.

“Oh my God, Rael are you ok? You’re covered in blood!” Ray looked behind Rael and saw what had just happened. “Holy shit! Was he infected? I ran all the way from my house over here and saw a lot of crazy shit. I came to see if you’ve gone to the hospital to check on Nicole. Where is she?” Rael looked down at the ground and grabbed Ray’s arm and lead him out to the Camaro.

“Come with us, we have a lot to talk about.”

“What do you mean, Rael? Please just tell me what’s going on, where is my Nicole?!”

“She’s dead, Ray! Alright, she is dead! I went to the hospital to pick her up and everything was a mess.” The two men piled into the car along with Shane. “Look, I loved her too, she was my fucking sister. I tried to get her out but there wouldn’t be a point. She wasn’t breathing.” Ray got really quiet and didn’t say anything for the whole ride to Shane’s house.

“I’m going to go in here and get some things. I’m bringing two more people with me so you and Ray can follow me out of the city.” Shane went up to the house and disappeared for a good while. Rael didn’t say a word to Ray and Ray didn’t say a word to Rael. Rael lost his whole family in just a span of two hours and Ray lost the only thing he had ever truly loved.

Shane finally came out of the house with a woman and young boy. They went into a car and Shane walked over to the Camaro. “Alright, just follow me Rael. Stay close and if you have any problems, just honk and I’ll help you out, alright?” Rael nodded and started his car.

He waited for the officer to pull out of his driveway and followed him out of the city of Raventon to see if they could find any sort of relief from this dreadful nightmare.

~~~***~~~

As soon as those doors opened, Daryl pushed Nicole gently through them. She was his priority at the moment and with her injured hand, if they got into a huge mess, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. Nicole looked around the gray building and knew, once again, that Rick had made a mistake.

Everyone slowly began to enter the building and Dale and T-Dog watched the doors for walkers. Shane walked ahead of the group and called out. “Hello? Anybody here?” The walls echoed his voice and the sound of a gun cocking.

“Just hold it right there,” A man hidden in the shadows held a very big gun to group of shaken survivors. They pointed their guns right back and Nicole just looked at this man as Bubba ran up to her. He turned the gun to the sound of the noise and she protectively got in front of him, comforting Bubba the best she could. “What are you doing here?”

“We came for answers.” Rick told the man. “We were told the CDC had them.” The man lowered his gun and walked out of the shadows that concealed him.

“Answers? In this day and age, that’s asking a whole lot. To be honest with you, I don’t think I have what you’re looking for.” He looked over at the group, his eyes stopping on Sophia holding onto Carol and Little Rael, who was hiding behind Nicole. The man sighed and stepped down to meet the group. “If you’re infected, you can’t come in. I’ll also have to do a series of blood tests to double check. These doors are about to be sealed so if you have anything to bring in, I suggest you do it now.”

Nicole looked over at Daryl as he ran outside to get her backpack. Rick, Glen and T-Dog brought the rest of their supplies inside and the man sealed the door. “Vi, seal it up and shut it down.” A monitor next to the door beeped and a huge metal door slowly came sliding down, sealing the group inside the CDC.

“My name’s Rick Grimes. Thanks for letting us in.” He extended a hand and the strange man just looked at it.

“I’m Dr. Edwin Jenner.” He looked over at the group and walked though them. “Well if you’re going to be staying here, follow me.” He led the group up some stairs and into an elevator. They all piled in and took a slow, quiet trip down into the bowels of the CDC.

“You look like you’re ready for war, packing serious heat like that.” Daryl said from his spot behind Nicole. He kept a hand on her shoulder and Nicole gingerly placed her hurt hand on his. She looked at this strange doctor, who didn’t look like a doctor at all. He was wearing and old used off white tee shirt, and old doctor slacks.

“Well, when that’s all there is around here, you learn to use what you got.” He looked around once more at the group of survivors. “I don’t think you folks are going to give me any trouble.” His eyes suddenly turned to Little Rael who was hiding in between Daryl and Nicole. “You, however seem strong enough to take me out if you wanted to.” Bubba gave a little laugh and raised a tiny fist to the doctor, getting a laugh from Carl and Sophia. Bubba blushed and hid behind Nicole. The doctor grinned and turned back around.

The elevator doors opened up and they walked through a short hallway then walked through a huge set of doors into area with computers all around them. “Vi, turn on the lights in here.”

All of a sudden, lights from above brightened the whole room and Nicole squinted as her eyes adjusted. “This is Zone 5.” Nicole turned to Rick as she saw him step forward and looked around the huge room. There were all alone.

“Why isn’t there anybody working? Surely there should be somebody doing something.” Rick asked. Nicole looked over at Daryl who walked toward her.

“There isn’t anybody else, there’s just me.”

“You were talking to someone else, Doctor, at the door and just now.” Lori pointed out getting the whole group to look back at the doctor.

“Vi, we have guests, say hello.” A loud booming computer voice came over loudspeakers hidden somewhere in the room.

“HELLO GUESTS.” Jenner shrugged and looked at the expression of the group as they realized that Vi was just an inanimate object, just artificial intelligence.

“I’m all alone.” Jenner walked back toward the door they went in through and had Vi turn the lights off. He then led them to a small room where he began to draw blood from the survivors. He started with the children. Carl and Sophia were easy enough to draw from, but Bubba was a whole different story.

“Bubba, come on, just sit still for a few moments. It doesn’t hurt that bad.” Nicole tried to sit him with her so Jenner could take a sample. He squirmed in her arms and he jumped to the floor. Nicole sighed and shrugged at the doctor. “I’m sorry, doc. Here,” She extended her right arm and the doctor took blood from her. Once he was done, she stood up and walked over to Bubba once again. “See, baby,” She held her arm out to him. “It doesn’t hurt at all.” Bubba still wasn’t convinced. He shook his head and kept crying, clinging onto his dad.

“Alright, look here Tres,” Rael looked down at his son and picked him up. “I’m going to show you that it’s all ok.” He walked over to the doctor and sat down, extending his arm to the doctor. Jenner took blood and Rael looked down at Bubba. He had his eyes shut tight and his little hands over his ears. “God dammit!” Rael screamed scaring Bubba really bad that he nearly fell off his lap. “Just go to Nicole, son.” Bubba ran to Nicole, crying his little eyes out.

Nicole glared daggers at her brother and he glared right back. He sauntered away from the rest of the group and hid in the shadows. Daryl looked over at Rael then down at Bubba. He knelt to his level and scooped him up. Bubba stopped crying and looked at him. Daryl gently rocked him and walked over to the doctor. He sat Bubba on his lap and extended his arm to the doctor.

The whole time Daryl looked straight into the little boy’s eyes. He didn’t flinch or blink, not until the doctor was done. When he was, Daryl took his arm back and quick as a flash, Bubba extended his. He looked up at Daryl and only flinched a little when the needle pierced his skin. When Jenner was done, Bubba smiled big at Daryl and hugged him around his neck. Daryl chuckled and stood up, walking back to Nicole. She grinned at Daryl and playfully punched his cheek.

As the rest of the group went to get their blood drawn, nobody noticed the looks of downright hatred and cold blooded murder that Rael was giving the man who was holding onto his son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rael seems to be holding some hatred for our two lovers, will it get out of hand?


	16. Safe Doesn't Exist, It Never Did

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group becomes aware of what has been happening to the world, but maybe whoever said ignorance was bliss had a point.

Andrea was the last person to get her blood drawn. After Jenner was done, she stood and nearly fell to the floor. Jenner stood quickly as she was caught by Jacqui and looked at her with worry.

“Are you alright? You don’t look so well.” He told her as he walked closer to the group.

“When you haven’t eaten in days, you tend to get a little lightheaded.” Rael said from his place beside Shane. He took Bubba’s hand repositioned the bag on his shoulders.

Jenner looked at the group and an idea was formed in his mind.

“You know, we have a very well stocked kitchen and an assortment of pots and pans. I’ll be more than happy to fix you all something to eat.” The eyes of the survivors have never been brighter.

“Excuse me, doc,” Nicole walked forward with an interesting look on her face. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be the one who cooks. I happen to be a very talented chef and I haven’t cooked anything for a large group of people in a very long time.” Nicole looked at the doctor and he raised an eyebrow at her as he shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s ok with me, I suppose.” The rest of the group seemed to not mind either. “Let me lead you to the kitchen.” The group followed the doctor once again through the cold maze of the CDC. Nicole slowed a few steps to meet up with her brother.

“You know I want you to cook with me, right?” She asked him. He looked down at her, Bubba in his arms, playing with the small curls growing from the base of Rael’s neck.

“Why?” Bubba looked down at Nicole, proceeding to grab a lock of her hair.

“Maybe because, you’re a damn culinary genius,” He gave a small smile. “These people could use it, Rael. We’ve all been through a lot and a good meal would really hit the spot.” Bubba looked up at his dad and Rael looked down at his son.

“You want daddy to cook for you, Tres?” Bubba gave a big smile and nodded his head. “Alright,” Rael laughed. “I’ll do it.” Nicole gripped her brother’s hand and squeezed it, right as they arrived at the huge kitchen.

Nicole went to the fridge and cabinets to see what they could make. There was a lot of pasta and loads of spaghetti sauce. Not to mention, there were a few assortments of white and red wine. She grinned when she saw the ingredients for making garlic bread from scratch, something that Rael was very good at. She was going to make her friends a real badass Italian dinner.

(((***)))

The dinner was a huge hit with the survivors. Nicole and Rael prepared spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread and enough wine to get everybody very tipsy. Once the food was eaten and the first bottle of wine emptied, Nicole began reminiscing every single time she had eluded suspicion of being the ‘Raventon Drug Lord’ as the papers called her.

“All I’m saying is, you have to admit, you guys never suspected the towns lawyers children to be behind it, did ya?” Nicole asked Rick, raising a glass in his direction. “I had all of you tan boys duped!” She laughed loudly and took a haughty gulp from her glass, leaning her head onto Daryl’s shoulder.

Rick sheepishly grinned down at his empty plate and nodded his head.

“Alright, I admit, Nicole, that you honestly were the very last person I suspected. Dixon on the other hand,” Rick pointed a slightly shaking finger past Nicole. “I had severe suspicions about. Not you, in general Daryl, but your brother. Shane and I have busted him a few times in possession of some very heavy drugs.” Rick took a swig from his cup and by his glassy eyes; Nicole could see she wasn’t going to envy him in the morning.

She looked over to her brother, who hasn’t said a word since they both served their friends. Once again, he had a long lost look in his eyes and he was steadily drinking straight out of one of the bottles. While everyone was laughing and talking Rael broke the silence in a very uncomfortable way.

“What the fuck are we doing sitting here and laughing like a bunch of fucking retards?” The room got quieter than death and Nicole glared daggers at her brother.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Shane added, looking over at the doctor, who had been sitting quietly since dinner ended. “Where is everyone?”

“Maybe that can be discussed at a later time, Officer Dickhead, I mean, Walsh.” Nicole said, getting shocked and silent sideways glances. Shane gave Nicole a look that made her think he wanted to hit her or have sex with her.

“She’s right, Shane. We’ve just enjoyed a wonderful meal and I’m sure the good doctor wouldn’t want us to bombard him with questions.” Rick added as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat in between Lori and Carl.

“Wasn’t this your big plan, dude?” Rael asked him rudely, not noticing Bubba shy away from him and hide under the table. “Weren’t you the one who said we needed to come here?” Rick stared at Rael and Rael stared at Rick, neither one of them flinched or move.

“We didn’t know what it was,” The doctor said, causing everyone to look in his direction. Bubba brushed against Nicole’s knees and looked under the table, seeing him crawl into Daryl’s lap. “It spread so fast. We didn’t know what to do. We all worked as hard and fast as we could, but we lost people once it started getting bad.

“We still kept working, even with a fewer people. We worked but then the military got overrun, even with all their weapons and bombs. After that, there were only a handful of people. You could count them on your hands. They all just bolted.” Rael scoffed at the doctor.

“That’s a lot of people, doc. You’re telling me every last one of those fuckers bolted?” Jenner looked at Rael with a sarcastically calm look on his face. That look caused Rael to straighten in his chair and glare at the doctor.

“Not every single one. We had full and constant access to what was going on out there. The news feeds and videos from all over the world that people were sending in. Once the realization of what these things were and what they were doing to people caused some of the folks who stayed behind to be so scared that they couldn’t even take a step out the door.

“Those folks,” Jenner looked right into Rael’s eyes. “checked out early.” Everyone at the table seemed to take an extra long draught of the alcohol they had in their glass at that moment. “It was a bad time for me, a really bad time.” He looked down at his empty plate and finished off his wine.

“There’s one thing I don’t get, doc.” Nicole said as placed her elbows on the table. “You could’ve let at anytime. You saw it was all going to hell, why didn’t you leave?” The doctor shrugged and reached for the closest bottle of wine, which T-Dog handed him.

“I thought that, maybe I could do some good if I kept working.” He poured himself another glass of wine, and stood up. “If you’d like, I can show you folks where you can sleep. It’s getting pretty late.” The group slowly began to stand and follow the doctor.

“Way to go, asshole,” Glen spat at Rael as he passed him on his way to catch up with T-Dog. Rael muttered‘whatever’ under his breath and grabbed Bubba from Daryl’s arms. Bubba began to protest along with Daryl but Nicole intervened.

She pulled Daryl away from her frowning brother and fell into the rest of the crowd. Rael stayed behind, far enough to be alone but close enough to keep up.

“What the fuck is his problem?” Daryl asked as he hung one of his arms over Nicole’s shoulders.

“I don’t know, Daryl. He’s all fucked up and I don’t know why. Just don’t bother with him, alright? I can take care of my brother.” She grinned up at him and he knelt down to kiss her. She smiled into the kiss as she returned it. She could taste the wine on his breath and tongue and she shuddered as he nibbled her lip.

She suddenly bumped into something and they broke apart. Andrea and Carol were glaring at them and the rest of the group was trying to hold back laughs.

“Maybe you two should focus more on walking instead of making out in front of everyone.” Carol exclaimed quite loudly, causing Jenner to stop talking and walking to look back at them. She then grabbed Sophia’s hand, which was on the verge of a very serious case of the giggle fits, and walked away with Andrea.

Nicole cleared her throat and continued walking; trying to focus on what the doctor was saying about showers and cots and not on what Daryl was whispering in her ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole is seemingly disliked by some of the members of the group. Are they right to hate on her or is it just old fashioned jealousy?


	17. Alcohol is Never Your Best Friend...It Thins Blood...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is settling in and getting cozy in the CDC...how long will the peacefulness last?

Nicole picked out a small room for herself and Daryl. It was nothing fancy; just a plain couch, lamp, television and random paintings hanging from the wall. Daryl left the room to get one of the cots the doctor mentioned, while Nicole went to the rec room with Bubba.

As soon as she walked in, she noticed right away that she had just been the topic of discussion. Carol was sitting on the couch in the small room, reading a book and Lori was doing the same. Carl and Sophia were busy with a game of checkers.

Bubba ran straight to Sophia and sat next to her. He had become increasingly close to the little girl, ever since the scenario at the camp, when Nicole left him to look for Merle.

“Hey there, ladies,” Nicole gave a genuine smile and received fake ones in return. Nicole cleared her throat uncomfortably and began to skim through the book titles on the towering bookshelf in front of her.

“You like to read, Nicole?” Lori asked her, standing up and walking towards her.

“I love to read. My dad use to make me and Rael read to him from his big boring law books when we were in elementary. It was all a plan schemed up to get us out of the house and into the library. I fell in love with Stephen King and Rael got into poetry.” Nicole fingered the spines of one of the books and gave a content sigh.

Lori rubbed her back reassuringly and Nicole looked at her. She gave a smile and this one truly reached her eyes. Nicole grabbed a pirate novel written by Michael Crichton and turned to leave.

“Let’s go, Bubba,” Nicole called out as she got to the door. Bubba stood up slowly, but Sophia grabbed his hand.

“Can’t Rael stay with us for a little longer?” I sighed and looked at the small girls face.

“Well, I don’t mind but you would have to see if your mom wouldn’t mind taking him back to his dad’s room when you all go to bed.” Sophia looked up at Carol who was looking at me. Sophia was jumping up and down, begging her mother for the small boy to stay and play.

“Of course he can stay, Sophia,” Carol smiled down at her daughter as she began to play ‘Duck, Duck, Goose!’ with Bubba and Carl. She looked up one more time to glare at Nicole, but she was already gone.

(((~~~)))

Rael stumbled through the halls with a bottle of wine. He didn’t know why he was feeling the way he was; angry, upset and confused. He was angry at himself for making everyone feel uncomfortable, upset for how he has been neglecting his son, and confused for why he has been having daydreams about murdering his own sister.

(((~~~)))

Glen had barged into the shower right before Nicole. She was just about to walk in when Glen ran up from behind her, quick as a cat, and slammed the door. “Sorry, Nicole but you were just a bit too slow!” He yelled at her through the door.

“Thanks a lot, Glen! I’ll remember that!” She chuckled to herself and walked back to hers and Daryl’s room. He was lying on the small cot, thumbing through her pirate novel when she walked in.

“Well, hello there,” He said softly as he put her book down. “I thought you went to take a shower.”

“I was but Glen beat me to it,” She sat next to him on the cot and pulled out the last pound of weed she had, along with her grinder and a blueberry Swisher.

“You know, I don’t think your brother likes me very much,” Daryl told her as she split the Swisher.

“Yea, I don’t think so, either.” Nicole looked around for a bag to dump the tobacco in, but stopped.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she threw the useless tobacco on the floor. She proceeded to load the grinder when she felt Daryl shift in the cot. She began to turn the grinder when she felt hot breath against her neck. She smiled and shuddered as Daryl began to kiss her on a soft spot under her ear.

“You look so sexy when you play with drugs,” He whispered in her ear before nibbling it softly, causing her body to shudder with pleasure.

“I need to finish this blunt, Daryl. I plan on smoking it in the shower.” She said as he continued his assault on her. She smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. She turned to face him and gave him a quick kiss, before returning to her weed.

It took her less than two minutes to load the blunt skin and roll it up. She put it with the clothes she was going to change into after her shower and grabbed onto the collar of Daryl’s vest.

She kissed him roughly and threw him onto the cot. He kissed her back just as rough and began to tear her shirt off. She ripped open his vest and sucked his neck softly, making sure she left a nice, big mark.

She wiggled out of her shorts and unzipped his pants, pulling them past his hips. She looked him in the eyes as she pulled him out of the slit in his boxers.

Daryl looked right into Nicole’s eyes as he grabbed her hips and pushed her panties to the side. She positioned herself just right and Daryl thrusted into her. His grip tightened on her hips and she rode him hard, feeling Daryl deep inside her.

He rotated his hips with hers, causing Nicole to cry out in pleasure. Daryl was hitting her right on the spot and it was making her go crazy.

All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door and Glen’s voice rang through the door.

“Nicole, the showers all yours!” Daryl kept thrusting into Nicole, causing her response to come out garbled.

“Uh, th-tha-thank YOU! God!” She called out as she came with Daryl right behind her.

“Umm, you’re welcome,” Glen answered back and Nicole collapsed onto Daryl’s chest and began hitting his arm.

“You did that on purpose, you asshole!” She laughed as he grinned at her.

“I wanted to see how you would sound,” Daryl smirked at her as she got dressed.

“Well, now you know and knowledge is power. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go shower.” She blew him a kiss, picked up her backpack and walked over to the shower.

(((~~~)))

Rael was rip roaring drunk when he decided to go see his sister. He had no idea what he was going to tell her or what he was going to do, but he knew he was going to do something.  
When he got to her room, he didn’t find Nicole, he found Daryl instead.

“Can I help you?” Daryl asked as he stood next to the cot with his arms crossed.

“Nicole, where is she?” Rael stumbled into the room, knocking over one of the paintings. Daryl raised an eyebrow at him and took a step forward.

“She’s taking a shower.” Rael straightened up and glared at Daryl. He had been meaning to talk to the redneck for some time now.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Rael took a step toward Daryl. “You’re trying to take my son away from me.” Daryl raised an eyebrow at Nicole’s drunken brother and had no idea what he was talking about. “You’re not going to get him. I killed the last bitch to take him from me and I’m not afraid to kill one more. You stay away from him, you and my bitch sister better stay out of my way or you will both regret it.” He stumbled out of the room just as messily and as noisily as he barged into it.

Daryl stood there, trying to comprehend just what Rael exactly meant. Who was the last person to take Bubba away from him? And more disturbing, would he really kill his own sister?

(((~~~)))

Nicole just finished brushing her teeth and was just about to head out of the bathroom when her brother roughly pushed open the door, knocking her back.

“What the fuck, Rael?!” She grabbed her wrist in pain and looked at her brother. He was drunk and angry, but Nicole had no idea why.

“You’re not taking him from me!” He yelled and backhanded his sister across the face. Nicole slammed against the wall and right as she turned around, her brother grabbed her neck with one of his strong, tattooed hands and started squeezing. With his other hand, he kept Nicole’s hands down, keeping her from trying to fight off her brother.

She was completely helpless.

She had no voice and no possible way to get Rael away from her.

She struggled, but she realized her attempts were futile; he was too strong for her.

She squeezed her eyes tight, feeling salty tears slowly roll down her cheeks.

She felt her legs getting weaker by the second and she thought of Daryl one last time…

All of a sudden, her foot slipped which caused her and Rael to stumble. His grip on her throat didn’t loosen, but the grip on her hands did. She scratched as his face and punched at it. She did anything she could with her hands, just to get away from her brother.

He yelled out in pain as one of her fingers caught in his left gauged ear. She pulled as hard as she could, grimacing as she felt skin tear. She then poked in the direction of his eyes and he finally let go. She ran out of the bathroom faster than she ever had before, grabbing her backpack on the way out.

She ran all the way back to her room, stopping outside of the door.

She tried to calm her breathing down as much as she could before she walked in. She didn’t want Daryl to see her so scared. She slowly opened the door and was grateful that the light was turned off. She walked into the direction of the cot, not noticing that one of the paintings was slightly askew.

She felt for the empty spot next to Daryl and collapsed into the bed.

Daryl then turned to her and wrapped his arms around her. He was still mulling over what Rael had told him when he came into the room.

‘I killed the last bitch to take him from me and I’m not afraid to kill one more.’

What did he mean? More importantly, who did he mean? He remembered Nicole telling him a little bit about Little Rael’s mother, but he couldn’t have possibly been talking about her, could he? What kind of a man could kill the mother of his only child?

Daryl decided that worrying about it wasn’t going to solve anything. He also wouldn’t want Nicole to worry about her brother anymore than she already was. He let her sleep in his arms, hoping that the other survivors where having a less eventful night than he did.

(((~~~)))

Nicole jolted awake from the awful nightmare she was having. She kept seeing the look in Rael’s eyes as he slowly tried to take her life from her.

She brought her knees to her chest and tried to keep from crying. She didn’t know what to do. She felt like the foundation that was keeping her sturdy during this whole mess was about to tumble and fall. Rael was her brother; he had been with through some rough ordeals and she had been with him.

What was causing this monster to rip out of him?

She closed her eyes and tried not to think about her brother. She thought about someone she hasn’t thought of in years; her mother.

She thought about how her mother used to dance around the house in the mornings, with a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.

She remembered the way her mother would always be covered in paint after a long day in her art studio.

Then, she remembered the day when she came home from school and found all of her mother’s belongings gone.

It was as if she had disappeared without a trace and Nicole never heard from her again.

Nicole sighed and felt Daryl stir next to her. She looked down at him and could barely make out his sleeping face. She smiled, taking in the man that had saved her life more than once, the man she was in love with.

She glided her hand gently across his face and he stirred once more.

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She knelt down to kiss him gently and kissed her back.

“How long have you been awake?” He asked as he sat up and stretched.

“Not long,” She lied. He didn’t need to know that she had been awake for almost an hour, thinking about how hopeless she felt.

“Well, let’s go see if anyone else is up,” He said as he got off the cot.

“I think I heard Rick, Lori and Carl a few minutes ago. They were saying something about breakfast.” Nicole stretched and slowly got off the cot.

“Now we have to go,” Daryl said with a huge grin on his face. “I happen to be starving.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rael is homicidal and Nicole is on the edge...what will the future hold for these two siblings? Also, how bad does Rael want to see his enemies gone?


	18. Death is Something You Can Never Avoid...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is realizing their new haven isn't safe...what exactly does that mean?

T-Dog had already been cooking when Daryl and Nicole got to the kitchen area. It was quite obvious that some of the group where feeling the after effects of last night’s alcohol consumption. Nicole went up to Glen, who was getting his shoulder’s rubbed by Jacqui, and shouted right next to his head.

“Good morning, Glen!” Lori, T-Dog, Carl, Sophia and Dale busted out laughing as Glen held his head in his hands.

“That was for the shower, wasn’t it?” He groaned, as he began to slowly fork eggs into his mouth.

“It sure was,” Nicole ruffled his hair as she went to rejoin Daryl. Jenner then walked in and everyone greeted him. Shane walked in a little bit after him and Nicole could’ve sworn she saw Lori tense up. She also noticed that Shane had a pretty crazy scratch on his face.

She wondered if something happened between the two of them last night. Just like the something that happened between her and her own brother. Right at that moment, Bubba and Rael walked into the kitchen area. Bubba was pulling Rael, who looked to be suffering from a very bad hangover.

She also got a full extent of what she did to his face; his left ear was ripped slightly, his eyes were red and he had scratches all over his face. She didn’t know what to think about her brother anymore. There had to be a logical explanation to why he tried to kill her last night.

Could it have just been the alcohol mixed with the stress of the world falling apart?

She didn’t know, and she just wanted to enjoy a nice breakfast with Daryl without thinking about anything like that.

She pulled her long hair into a high ponytail and thanked T-Dog as he handed her a plate.

“Damn girl, I didn’t know you were a freak!” T-Dog yelled out and she looked at him with a very confused look.

“What are you talking about?” She asked. Glen softly laughed and she turned to face him.

“Well, I told T-Dog about what I had a feeling was going on when I went to let you know that the shower was free.” Nicole still wasn’t catching on.

“Ok, so me and Daryl were having sex, what’s the big deal?”

“It looks like it was that rough sex,” T-Dog pointed to her neck. “You like that kind of stuff, don’t you?”

It finally clicked. Rael left bruises on her neck from last night.

She had to think fast, before Daryl claimed he didn’t know anything about that.

She reached under the table and squeezed Daryl’s hand.

“Yea, I enjoy a little rough housing every now and then, that’s not a crime. I also don’t recall asking permission for how I enjoy my sex life so you and Glen could mind your own business.” She smirked at T-Dog who raised his hands up.

“Hey, whatever works for you two, I’m not judging.” He continued to serve and Nicole turned to Daryl, who was able to see the fingertip bruises that covered her neck. He hid his initial shock but anger burned in his eyes. He couldn’t hide that from Nicole.

She leaned into kiss his cheek and she whispered in his ear.

“I have to tell you something, but not here, not now,” He sighed and gave her a slight nod, reassuringly squeezing her hand.

While she ate, he glared at her brother, his suspicions from last night seemed to buzz around in his head like angry killer bees.

Rael was the kind that would kill his sister; Nicole had confirmed that for Daryl without even saying a word.

(((~~~)))

Once everyone had finished eating, Andrea and Dale brought a very important matter to light: what was going on here?

The doctor led the group to the big room he first brought them to. He went on to explain that what they were about to see, very few people ever saw.

“Vi, give us a playback of TS-19.”

“PLAYBACK OF TS-19,” Vi responded and the big screen lit up and began showing what looked to be an MRI.

“Eww, what’s that, a brain?” Sophia called out as she held on tighter to Carol.

“That is correct,” Jenner answered. “This brain was very smart.” He got a faraway look in his eyes and shook his head slightly. “Go to enhanced internal view.”

“ENHANCED INTERNAL VIEW,” Vi called out and on the screen where the neurons and inner workings of the human brain. They were firing and all lit up like a blue Christmas tree.

“What’s up with all them lights?” Shane asked.

“You don’t know what those are?” Nicole asked. Shane looked at her and shook his head.

“I’m a cop, darling, not a brain surgeon.” He slightly chuckled as she rolled her eyes.

“Well, ‘them lights’,” She began, mocking his tone. “are synapses. Those things are what make Shane Walsh Shane Walsh. They make Rick what he is and Sophia what she is. They’re what make me good at math and Rael,” She looked over at her brother who was watching her with a familiar look. It was the look he had when she won a math award her senior year in high school. “good at foraging and scavenging supplies.” She walked closer to the screen, feeling as smart as Einstein. “Those little things in our heads are everything.”

“I’m impressed,” Jenner told her. She shrugged her shoulders and went to stand next to Daryl.

“Wait, what did you just say?” He asked her. She choked back a laughed and just shook her head, grabbing a hold of his arm.

“Those lights also determine everything you will ever do in your life from the moment you are born, to the moment you die,” He got that far away look again and Rick pulled him out of it.

“Die? So this was an actual person?”

“Yes, it was.”

“Who?” Andrea asked. “Who was it?”

“Test subject 19, they were a person who came to us bitten and allowed us to record what happened, while it happened.” The group looked at the doctor and he once again spoke to the hidden computer woman. “Vi, scan to the first event.”

“SCANNING TO FIRST EVENT,” The images on the big screen zoomed by until finally it stopped. What appeared to be a big black tree was right in the middle of the formally blue and bright brain.

“Oh, dear God,” Dale exclaimed.

“What the hell is that?” Glen asked.

“It acts like the meningitis virus,” Jenner explained. “The fever sets in, the brain begins to shut down which in turn causes the rest of the bodies organs to follow suit.” The darkness took over the brain and TS-19 stopped moving. “Then, you die.” He got the faraway look for a third time and looked down at the floor. “You’re gone, and nothing can bring you back.”

Nicole tried very hard not to think about Ray at that moment. She was glad there was someone else that could relate.

“Poor Jim,” Sophia said softly. Andrea brought her hand slowly to her mouth and Jenner looked at her. She closed her eyes and let a single tear fall.

“Are you alright?” Jenner asked, and when she didn’t answer him Lori answered for her.

“She lost her sister a couple of days ago,” She went to Andrea and tried to comfort her. Jenner walked up to her and looked her in the eyes.

“You’re not the only one. I lost someone, too.” She looked up at the doctor for a second and looked back down. The doctor turned back to the big screen and cleared his throat. “Vi, scan ahead to the second event.”

“SCANNING TO SECOND EVENT,” The footage on screen once again fast forwarded.

“We have had reports of all sorts of reanimation times, some as little as a few minutes, others that took hours. This patient it only took two hours, one minute and seven seconds.” The dark brain on the screen suddenly showed a spark. It was just a little red spark in the center of the brain and it sent little red tendrils throughout.

“Does this disease restart your brain?” Lori asked, pulling her son a little closer to her.

“Not the brain itself, but the brainstem. It restarts it enough to get a person up and walking around.” Jenner explained.

“These people are dead, doc, aren’t they?” Shane asked as he walked a bit closer to the screen. Jenner just pointed up at the screen.

“You tell me,” He dropped his hand to the side and Rick walked up next to him.

“It doesn’t make sense. It’s not the same. There’s none of those little blue lights, just those red ones. The rest of it is dark and lifeless.”

“Dead,” Jenner said. “The part that Nicole explained, the frontal lobe of the brain, the part that makes you who you are doesn’t come back. You look like yourself on the outside, but on the inside,” He looked up at the screen once more. “your nothing but a monster driven by instinct with an insatiable hunger.” Nicole’s grip on Daryl’s arm tightened and she looked up at the screen, just in time to see something rip through TS-19’s head.

“What the fuck was that?” Nicole yelled out, grabbing onto Daryl.

“You shot them, didn’t you?” Andrea said, it was more of a statement than a question.

“Vi, shut down the big screen and the computers.”

“SHUTTING DOWN BIG SCREEN AND COMPUTERS.” The group looked at Jenner as he began to walk through the cubicles of computers.

“Answer me something, doc,” Rael finally spoke up. Jenner looked over at him. “Do have the slightest idea of what the fuck this is?”

“Daddy!” Bubba put one of his tiny hands over Rael’s mouth and Rael gently bit it, causing Bubba to scream and laugh at him.

“To be honest, it could be anything. I’d even go with God at this point,” Jenner continued walking until Rick grabbed his arm.

“What do you mean it could be anything? Surely you have some idea, you must have even a slight idea.” Rick looked at the doctor and he suddenly saw him, truly saw him. He looked tired, worn out and a bit depressed.

“Surely there is a different sector out there that’s still working to solve this, right?” Carol asked.

“This can’t be the only one.” Andrea added.

“There may be someone out there, still working, just like me. I wouldn’t know because I have had no contact with anyone in any of the other places for over a month now. Everything went down, you understand? Everything.”

“So you’re telling me, that there is no coming back from this? That this is happening everywhere?” Andrea questioned and Jenner just looked at her with that clearly stated, ‘What do you think?’

“Dear Lord,” Jacqui whispered.

“I think it’s time to down the rest of that alcohol.” Daryl said. “Come on, Nicole.”

“Doctor, I can’t imagine how hard this may be for you, but I don’t think asking one more question is going to hurt anything.” Dale stepped up to the doctor. “I noticed that that big clock is counting down and I would like to know, what happens when it reaches zero?”

Nicole and Daryl stopped in their tracks and looked at the doctor along with the rest of the group. Jenner didn’t answer right away, he hesitated and it made Nicole feel very uncomfortable.

“It’s just letting me know how much time is left before the basement generators run out of fuel.” He kept walking and didn’t stop.

“What happens when the fuel is gone?” Nicole asked as the doctor passed her and Nicole. He just walked on by and didn’t even acknowledge that she said anything. Rick was going to get an answer.

“Vi, what happens when the generators run out of fuel?”

“WHEN THE GENERATORS RUN OUT OF FUEL, FACILITY WIDE DECONTAMINATION WILL OCCUR.” Rick looked over to where Jenner had gone, but he had already disappeared. Daryl didn’t stay any longer. He grabbed Nicole’s hand and dragged her back to their room.

She had promised him an explanation and he was going to get one.

“Daryl, please slow down, you’re hurting my arm,” Nicole whined and Daryl let go, slowing his pace. “I know what you want and I’m going to give it to you.” She opened the door to their room and walked in ahead of Daryl. He shut the door a little hard and she jumped and turned around.

“What did he try to do, Nicole?”

“He tried to kill me Daryl, he had his hand around my neck and he just kept squeezing. He would’ve done it too, Daryl. He would’ve succeeded if I hadn’t slipped and loosened his hold on my hands. That’s when I was able to fuck his face up and get away.” Daryl just looked down at Nicole and she went and sat on the cot, enjoying the cool air conditioning as it brushed against her skin.

All of a sudden, Daryl punched the wall next to him. Nicole jumped off the cot and looked at him with a shocked expression.

“Who was the last person to take Bubba away from him?” Daryl asked her, ignoring her shock from his sudden outburst.

“What are you talking about?” She asked.

“Rael came in here last night looking for you while you were in the shower. He said he killed the last bitch to take his son from him and he wasn’t afraid to kill one more. Who was the last person to take Bubba away from him, Nicole?!” Nicole fell back onto the bed.

“Bubba’s mom, Rachel, won full custody of Bubba when he was born. The judge didn’t allow Rael any rights and ever since then he always had it out for Rachel. She took him from Rael.” Nicole closed her eyes as she finally realized why she wasn’t with Bubba and Rael when she found them. He had killed her.

“Rael thinks we’re trying to take Bubba from him, Nicole. He thinks me and you are going to steal him away. He’s going to try and kill us.” Nicole couldn’t believe that could be it. Why would Rael come to that state of mind?

“I can’t believe it,” Nicole whispered.

“You better believe it, baby. I know that’s your brother and all, but you better keep a close watch on him. I know damn well I will. He hurt you badly, and that can’t be forgiven.” Nicole jumped up and pulled Daryl into a huge hug. He held her back just as hard and tried his best to comfort her.

She slowly pushed him away and lay out on the cot. She grabbed her pirate novel and began reading. Daryl laid on top of her and rested his head on her chest, listening to the steady beat of her heart. She read for a while and while she read he held onto her, like if her where to let go, he would die.

While they embraced, neither of them notice that the air conditioning stopped.

Nicole was just about to stop reading when all of a sudden, the lights turned off.

“What the hell?” Daryl hopped off of Nicole and he helped her to her feet. They stumbled through the dark and finally reached the door. Nicole opened it quickly and saw that their room wasn’t the only one losing power.

Everyone was out in the hallway, confused as to what was going on.

“Lori, Carol, Carl and Sophia alright?” Nicole called out and they both nodded to her.

“How’s Bubba?” Lori asked. Nicole shrugged her shoulders. Rael wasn’t in the hallway and neither was Bubba.

“What in the world is going on?” Dale asked. Nicole shrugged her shoulders and turned to the kind old man.

“Dale, can you find my brother and Bubba for me, I’m worried sick about them. Bubba can be a little afraid of the dark sometimes.”

Dale took her hands into his and nodded.

“Of course, Nicole.” He smiled reassuringly at her and took off down corridor. Five minutes later, Jenner walked by with a tense expression glued onto his face. He grabbed the last bottle that Daryl was drinking from and began taking big gulps.

“Doctor, what on earth is going on?” Nicole asked as she followed him. “Why is everything turning off?” At that moment, the lights in the hallway shut off and the group of survivors huddled closer together as they followed Jenner back to the big room.

“They’re shutting down because they’re not important.” He took another drink and continued walking.

“How is light and air in our rooms not important?” Lori asked as she held Carl’s and Sophia’s hands. Nicole turned and looked through the dark hallway for any sign of Dale, Rael or Bubba, there wasn’t one.

“Zone 5 doesn’t think we need them, so it’s shutting them down. It’s shutting itself down.” Jenner kept walking even when Nicole tried to grab his arm to slow him down.

“What does that mean? Why is the building shutting down? How the hell can a building even shut itself down?” Nicole yelled at the doctor but he headed toward a flight of stairs that lead to the big room.

“She’s talking to you, man!” Daryl yelled out, but Nicole just grabbed a hold of his arm. She knew he wasn’t going to tell them anything. Daryl however, wasn’t giving up. “You better start explaining, doc. How the hell can a building shut itself down? Buildings can’t do anything.”

“There’s a lot buildings can do, if you give them the power.” Right at that moment, Rick, Shane, T-Dog and Glen appeared under the flight of stairs the rest of the group was going down. Rick had a look on his face that made Nicole’s stomach sink to her feet.

“Jenner, tell us please, what is happening?” Rick asked the doctor as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“This building has a design that’s meant to keep the computers running and only the computer until the time runs out. That’s why everything is turning off. We have thirty minutes left.” He pointed to the big digital timer that Dale pointed out.

Dale suddenly appeared with Rael and Bubba and Nicole felt joy radiate in her. Bubba was safe. She motioned them to stay by the door, she had a feeling they weren’t going to be staying long. Jenner looked over at Daryl and gave his alcohol back to him.

Daryl took it from Jenner and Nicole took it from Daryl. She took herself a big swallow of the burning alcohol.

“We weren’t the last to go down, it was the French,” Jenner said as he walked toward the center of the computers.

“What about the French?” Lori asked.

“They kept going until the end. You see, they didn’t take off or ‘check out early’. They kept working and working and they thought they were close to a solution, but,” Jenner stopped talking and shrugged his shoulders.

“But what?” Jacqui asked. It took Jenner a while to answer the group.

“They ran out of power,” He answered softly. Then he began to laugh a sort of maniacal sort of laugh. “We live in a world where irreplaceable coal and gasoline powers everything! It was only a matter of time before power all over the world went out!” He continued laughing and Shane rushed toward him, with a look that stated he wanted to punch the laugh out of this man’s throat.

Rick grabbed him and pushed him back.

“We’re getting out of here.” He told Shane, as he turned to the rest of the group. “Everyone, let’s go. We’re leaving this place RIGHT NOW!! Hurry up, let’s move!” Rick yelled out and soon everyone was heading for the door. Nicole looked toward her brother and saw the scared look on Bubba’s face. It turned into a look of pure fear when a screechy alarm began blaring throughout the CDC.

“RAEL, GET HIM OUT OF HERE!” She yelled out to her brother. Rael scooped up Bubba in his arms and grabbed a hold of Dale as they ran back into the hallway.

“What the hell is happening, Jenner?” Shane yelled at the doctor.

“THIRTY MINUTES TO DECONTAMINATION,” Vi yelled out over the alarm and nobody wasted anymore time in asking questions.

“Alright, let’s go, bud, you heard you dad. Let’s go!” Shane yelled and everybody ran to the door. Nicole saw Dale, Rael and Bubba waiting for them and just when she thought she was going to make it, the door slid up and sealed them inside the CDC with less than thirty minutes to go.

“NO!” Nicole screamed as she ran up to the silver door, punching and kicking it as hard as she could. “Let us out! You cock-sucking, son of a bitch, how the fuck could you lock us in here!” Daryl ran to her and grabbed a hold of her, pulling her away from the door so she wouldn’t hurt herself.

She looked up at Daryl, then over to Rick and Glen and T-Dog and all the faces she has grown used to. She thought about the other three on the other side of the door, the other three she honestly felt like she wasn’t ever going to see again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will happen to the survivors locked in? And what about the ones locked out?


	19. How Can You Keep Hope Alive, When Death is Waiting For You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is going to happen to the survivors? Is it the end, or will they make out alive? And if they do, what will the future hold?

Dale and Rael watched in horror as the big metal door slid up.

“No! Dear God, please no!” Rael screamed and banged on the metal door. Dale held onto Bubba’s hand and watched as the young man began to cry. “I’m so sorry, Nicole.” He whispered to himself. “I never meant to hurt you, I’m so very sorry.” He fell to his knees and banged the door once more.

“Rael, what are we going to do? Should we try to leave? Do we stay and see what’s going to happen?” Rael looked down at his hands and thought very deeply. He turned around and looked into the eyes of his son. He should be the only one that Rael should take care of.

“We leave. Go get your stuff Dale because this is where we make our exit.” Dale just looked at Rael and then looked at the silver door one more time. He could here banging on the other side and tried to see if he could tell who was doing the banging. “Hey, Dale! C’mon old man, we’re leaving!” Rael called out and picked up his son. Dale turned and followed Rael, heading to their rooms to pack their stuff.

It didn’t take them long to get their belongings together. They met back up and quickly headed to the main door. They looked for a way to open the door but were unable to find one.

“Rael, what are we going to do now? There is no possible way for us to get out of here!” Rael’s eyes were a blur as they scanned the huge planes of glass that separated them from the outside world. He put Bubba down and ran to a square of glass. Bubba then ran to Dale and wrapped his little arms around his legs.

“Granpa, I’m scared.” He whimpered as he held on tighter. Dale placed a hand on the small boys head. He didn’t want to frighten the boy anymore, but he was pretty scared himself. He then remembered to the first day that he met the child. He had at first called him Santa Claus when he looked up at the old man’s face.

Dale had to explain for three days straight that he wasn’t Santa. So once Bubba got that through his head he started calling him ‘Granpa’.

Dale didn’t object to that.

(((~~~)))

“You fucking son of a bitch!” Nicole heard Daryl yell as she fell against the sliding door. “How could you lock us in here?!” Nicole imagined Daryl beating the doctor to death, hitting him over and over again until his face was unrecognizable and Daryl’s knuckles were bloodied, bruised and swollen.  
She felt hands on her shoulders and looked up to see Lori, scared to death with Carl clinging to her.  
“Nicole, you have to stop him,” She pleaded. “You have to stop Daryl from losing control. If he kills the doctor we will never get out of here.” I looked over to where Rick and T-Dog were pushing Daryl back. She also saw the look that Shane was giving that doctor and also the way he was holding that large shotgun.  
“I’ll rein in Daryl,” Nicole said as she slowly turned toward Lori, “if you rein in Shane.” Lori looked up at Nicole as she stood and ran toward Daryl.  
He had an axe in his hands was trying desperately to swing it at Jenner’s face. She ran as fast as she could and wrapped her hands around Daryl’s waist, pulling him away from the doctor.

She was able to accomplish what two grown men couldn’t.

Daryl glared at the doctor as Nicole pulled him away.

“Jenner, you need to open that door and let us out, right now!” Rick hissed at the doctor as he ran to where he was seated.

“It wouldn’t matter, the facility locked everything topside anyways. Your friends that got out, they can’t go anywhere.” Jenner looked around at the group of survivors; Lori and Carol clutching their children, Andrea and Jacqui holding each other’s hand, Shane and T-Dog with their brave but fearful faces, and Nicole and Daryl, holding onto each other as if their embrace could save them. “Besides, this is better, than what would happen out there.”

“What is better?” Lori choked out.

Jenner stayed quiet.

Shane violently kicked his seat as Rick repeated his wife’s question.

“What is better?!”

“What the hell do you think we do here?!” Jenner quickly stood and got in Rick’s face. “We keep you ungrateful people safe from horrible and agonizing deaths! We protect you all from thousands of diseases that could easily wipe all of you out in the span of a few hours! This is the god damned center for disease control! DISEASE CONTROL!” He calmed down after his rant and sat back down in his chair. No one spoke for five seconds. Jenner took a deep breath. “We have a safety net here. The things we work with are lethal so in the off chance of a terrorist attack, if the power goes out H.I.T.s are deployed to protect the public.”

“What are H.I.T.s? Nicole asked softly.

Jenner looked down at the floor.

“VI, define.”

“H.I.T.S: HIGH -IMPULSE THERMOBARIC FUEL-AIR EXPLOSIVES CONSIST OF A TWO STAGE AEROSOL IGNITION THAT PRODUCES A BLAST WAVE OF SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER POWER AND DURATION THAN ANY OTHER KNOWN EXPLOSIVE EXCEPT NUCLEAR. THE VACUUM-PRESSURE EFFECT IGNITES THE OXYGEN AT BETWEEN 5,000 AND 6,000 DEGREES AND IS USEFUL WHEN THE GREATEST LOSS OF LIFE AND DAMAGE TO STRUCTURES IS DESIRED.”

“It sets the air on fire. Just a few seconds then nothing. Everything is over” Nicole clenched Daryl’s arm tightly as she looked around her. This was going to be the end. She was never going to see her brother or nephew again. She was never going to get to make love to Daryl again. She closed her eyes and let her tears fall freely.

Her life was ending.

(~~)

Daryl and Shane had been banging on the door for what seemed like hours. All they were accomplishing was making the axes sharper. Nicole sat with Lori and Carol and tried to help keep the children calm.

“You should’ve just left well enough alone. You all could’ve been better of it you just…”

“If we just what?” Rick interrupted. “Just rolled over and let you kill us?”

“Those things out there are going to kill you. It’s going to be painful and slow. I’m giving you a quick way out, easy and virtually painless.”

“We don’t deserve this!” Carol screamed. “Our children don’t deserve this!” I stood and helped Carol to her feet, and turned back toward Daryl.

“Rick, those doors aren’t going to give,” Shane said out of breath as him and Daryl walked back towards us.

“That door is impenetrable.” Jenner said. “Nothing will get through.”

Daryl rushed violently at the doctor. “My fist is about to go through your chest!” Nicole tried to grab him but she missed. Luckily Rick and Shane were able to stop him. Daryl didn’t walk back to Nicole. He paced back and forth away from the group, like a violent animal who has come face to face with an enemy.

“Rick, I know this is what you want.” Jenner said.

Rick looked to him like he had just told him something horrible.

“You don’t know anything.” He venomously whispered.

“Remember what you told me last night? You knew that it was going to happen any day now that all these people and everyone you cared about would soon be dead.”

The group looked at Rick in utter disbelief. Nicole looked at her partner with mixed emotion. How could he possibly think that with everything that had happened, after everything they went through?

“What the hell is he talking about?” Shane asked. “You were the one who was going off about trying to keep folks alive and doing what we can to survive, and now this?”

“I just wanted to keep people motivated. We need to keep believing in hope.”

“Hope is dead, Rick.” Andrea said suddenly. He looked down at her. “Everything is gone and that is the truth. There is no hope. We are all doomed.”

“She’s right,” Jenner added. “This is the end of the world. This is the extinction of the human race.”

Nobody noticed Shane walk away.

“Just hold each other, and wait, it will all be over soon.”

A gun cocked and everyone turned to see Shane charging toward Jenner.

“Shane no!” Rick yelled.

Shane broke out of his grasp and pointed the shotgun right at Jenner’s face.

“Open the god damned door or you’re going to die.” He didn’t look like he was playing.

“Shane you can’t kill him,” Nicole said shakily.

“She’s right, brother. If you kill him, you kill us all. Shane please!” Shane yelled in this man’s face and turned the gun to his computers. Shane began blasting away at them. Everyone ducked in cover and Daryl quickly ran to Nicole. He wrapped one arm around her waist and used the other to shield her head. He turned her away and knelt down, determined to protect her from Shane’s wrath.

Rick was finally able to stop him and he wrestled and subdued Shane to the ground. They were both breathing heavily and after a few seconds Rick stood up.

“You’re full of shit,” Rick told Jenner.

He merely chuckled.

“How’s that?” He asked.

Rick walked toward him.

“Because if you had no hope, you wouldn’t be here now. You would’ve either left or checked out early. You stayed and fought this thing, a man who has no hope wouldn’t do that so tell me why. If there is no hope why would you stay?”

“I didn’t stay for me,” Jenner stood and pointed to the big screen. “I stayed for her. I stayed for my wife.”

The realization began to spread throughout the survivors faces.

“TS-19, was your wife?” Nicole asked softly.

“Yes,” Jenner answered. “She was bit and dying. Her last wish was for me to use her as the ground floor of figuring out a way out of this mess. I mean, what was I supposed to do, say no? She was suffering, she was dying. It should’ve been me. I was nobody. She was the brains here. She would’ve been able to save us. Not me, not some lowlife named Edwin Jenner. Just her,” Jenner’s voice broke away as he looked at the floor.

Rick stepped up to Jenner and it was the first time he didn’t look at the man with disdain.

“I’m sure if your wife had a choice she would be here, but she’s not. You have a choice and I’m begging you, please give us the same.”

Jenner took a deep breath and looked down at the floor.

“Like I said, everything above ground is locked.” He walked to the console at his computer and pressed in some buttons.

The large door lowered. The survivors were free.

Nicole didn’t wait any longer. She didn’t wait for Daryl or for Rick. She took off to look for her brother and her nephew. They had to be somewhere. She ran to her room and quickly grabbed both hers and what little belongings Daryl had. Calling out for Rael, she ran through the CDC trying to remember her way to the front door. She remembered going down on an elevator, surely there had to be stairs.

She found the stairs and began pounding up them. She ignored the burning in her lungs and the stitch growing in her side. She had to find her Raels. Her brother was still her brother, she still wanted to find him.

When she reached the top of the stairs, sunlight blinded her. She let her eyes adjust before taking in her surroundings. She saw Rael, Bubba and Dale standing in front of huge panes of glass. She felt an overwhelming rush of emotion as she gazed upon her older brother. She hasn’t forgotten how lost he was but the unconditional sibling love was strong and she ran to embrace him.

He held her tight in his arms, tears falling down his cheeks. He never meant to hurt her, she was his baby sister, and he just felt so lost. It was like wandering in a life that resembles your own but isn’t.

Before Rael could talk to Nicole, they began to hear shouts from the other survivors. Nicole, Rael and Dale called back to let them know they were all right. When the group appeared Nicole ran and hugged Rick. He saved them, he was the reason Nicole was able to be with her family again. She then turned to Daryl who was already walking to her. She went in to hug him, but he gingerly grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her. He kissed her so deeply that the planet seemed to stop for a moment. It was a kiss that Nicole could only describe as no less than perfect.

“Where’s Andrea?” Dale asked as he looked around at his friends.  
Nicole reluctantly released Daryl and looked around also, not seeing her or Jacqui.

“She stayed.” Rick said. Dale didn’t reply. He turned and ran down to where the others had just come.

“Granpa!” Bubba called out from next to Rael. Nicole watched as the old man disappeared from sight then turned her attention to the windows were T-Dog was attempting to break the glass.

“What. The. HELL!” He yelled in between blows with a chair. He was about to attempt it again when Shane called out to him.

“Dog, get down!” Shane raised his shotgun and took aim at the glass. The shot was just as effective as a pea shooter.

“We can’t get out,” Daryl said softly. It would take more than all the ammo we have to get out of here.”

Nicole suddenly made a realization. She began digging in her bag until she found what she was looking for; the grenade.

“Rick!” She called out. He turned to her and she slowly raised her hand up to reveal the grenade.

“Everyone get back!” Rick yelled as Nicole ran to the window. She held the trigger, pulled the pin and released. She dropped the grenade near the window and quickly ran back to Daryl. Before she got to him, the grenade went off and shattered the pane of glass.

Nicole quickly got up and grabbed Daryl’s hand. They both ran out onto the grounds of the CDC. Daryl got in front of Nicole to protect her from the walkers. She still was in no position to protect herself.

“Lori! Carl! Stay close to me!” Rick yelled as he shot some walkers coming towards him. Shane covered him and Daryl used the axes he took from the lab. He swung at the walkers with an ax in each hand. Nicole had to admit that she was slightly turned on.

Nicole finally reached Daryl’s truck and she jumped in, breathing heavily. Daryl jumped in on the passenger side and Rick was just about to start up the RV when someone else came out of the CDC.

It was Andrea and Dale.

They ran as fast as they could to the RV but had to take shelter.

The CDC then exploded and was quickly engulfed in flame. The shock wave could easily be felt by all walkers in a five mile radius not to mention the thick black plume of smoke that began to rise. Nicole saw Glen open the RV door to rush in Dale and Andrea and she fell into the seat.

She suddenly felt herself crying uncontrollably. She brought her knees up to her chest and began to sob horribly. Daryl began to ask her about it but she just turned away. He understood. He knew she was in a great amount of pain and under an enormous amount of pressure. He let her be, she needed to just let it all go. The survivors’ convoy began to move and Nicole felt a deep sense of fear. If what Jenner said was true, then there was no way out of this mess. The world was gone, there was no more hope and no more chances of being saved.

She began to wonder if Jenner was right. Maybe it would’ve been best if she had stayed. What if she missed her shot at a peaceful death? What if her long and painful death was just around the corner? She now envied Jacqui and Jenner and as she looked over at Daryl’s sweet face, his beautiful short hair and his piercing eyes, she didn’t think that he would be enough to show her that hope still existed. Because for all she knew, this time tomorrow Nicole as well as all the people she loved could end up as just another group of corpses, just another herd of the walking dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole is lost, her hope is gone and now it seems like not even Daryl can save her. What will this mean for her and her lover? Will she be strong enough to fight, or is the weight of crushing defeat too overwhelming? Find out in Season 2!
> 
> Season 1 is over. Stay tuned for season 2 and I hope you all enjoyed this story!


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